Lord Lyons to Mr. Seward.
Sir: Her Majesty’s government have had under their consideration the correspondence which I held with you in the months of April, May, and June last, respecting the case of Mr. Hardcastle, a British subject, who was killed while incarcerated in the Old Capitol or Carroll prison by a shot fired by a sentry.
Her Majesty’s government have good grounds for believing that the lamentable death of Mr. Hardcastle is sincerely regretted by the United States authorities, and that a proper and bona fide inquiry will be made into the circumstances, with a view to the punishment of the person guilty of the homicide, if it shall appear that the shot which caused it was fired without justifying cause.
Her Majesty’s government cannot, however, abstain from remarking that this unhappy occurrence makes it, in their opinion, only the more necessary to ask the government of the United States for some explanation in justification of the imprisonment of Mr. Hardcastle; as her Majesty’s government understand the facts, this unfortunate man was permitted by the United States authorities to cross the lines from the territory held by the so-called confederates openly, under a flag of truce, was then arrested as a prisoner of war for so doing, and was detained in a military prison, where he met his death.
Such treatment of a foreigner, coming into the United States territory under a flag of truce, and accused of no civil offence, has the appearance of a violation of good faith, and her Majesty’s government are at a loss to understand how it can be satisfactorily accounted for. Her Majesty’s government think, also, that the facts stated in the letter of Captain Nix, dated the 25th May, a copy of which you did me the honor to transmit to me with your note of the 18th of June, cannot be suffered to pass without grave remonstrance. It would appear that, in consequence of the prison, called the Carroll prison, being situated in a public avenue, and otherwise ill adapted to the purposes for which it is used, the sentinels guarding the outer walls of that prison have received orders to warn all prisoners to keep their heads within the windows, and if the prisoners persist in disobeying, to fire their pieces.
These orders, which, if the account given in the same letter be correct, were too faithfully obeyed, were apparently the cause of Mr. Hardcastle’s death, although he was not the prisoner whose head was put out of the window.
It seems to her Majesty’s government to be hardly possible that, under such circumstances, the sentinel can justly be found liable to any punishment; the blame seems really to rest with the superior authorities, by whom such unjustifiable instructions were issued.
The whole case leaves a very painful impression upon the minds of her Majesty’s government. The liberty of a British subject was, they conceive, interfered with, without any serious cause, and in apparent breach of good faith. The representations of her Majesty’s legation in his behalf did not procure his release; and in the end his life was carelessly sacrificed by the accidental result of a rough and unmerciful system of prison discipline, excused on the ground of the unsuitableness and the overcrowded state of the United States [Page 691] military prisons. Her Majesty’s government have, accordingly, deemed it necessary to direct me to address to you the foregoing representation concerning this lamentable affair.
I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.