Mr. F. W. Seward to Lord Lyons.

My Lord: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 31st ultimo, relative to the case of the British steamer Victor, captured by the United States cruiser Juniata, in the month of May last, and to inform you that a copy of it will be communicated to the Secretary of War with a view to an investigation being made into the complaint of the master, mate, and engineer of the Victor, of cruel treatment in Fort Taylor, Key West. In the mean time I have the honor to enclose for your information the accompanying copy of a letter of the 22d of September last, from the acting attorney general of the United States, and of the letter from the United States district attorney at Key West, to which it relates.

I have the honor to be, with high consideration, your lordship’s obedient servant,

F. W. SEWARD, Acting Secretary

Right Hon. Lord Lyons.

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Mr. Coffey to Mr. Seward.

Sir: I have the honor to enclose you a copy of a letter from Thomas J. Boynton, esquire, United States district attorney at Key West, Florida, received at this office in response to a letter of inquiry addressed to him by me, at your request, relative to the case of the prize steamer Victor.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

T. J. COFFEY, Acting Attorney General.

Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State.

Mr. Boynton to Mr. Bates.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 18th ultimo, concerning the case of the prize steamer Victor, and to reply:

First. The case of the Victor has been heard in this court. The decree was in favor of the claimant, restoring the vessel. I thought it my duty to appeal to the Supreme Court, and did so.

Secondly. The vessel was captured a short time after leaving the port of Havana. The witnesses speak of the capture as having taken place about six miles from the Moro Castle. The master, in his claim, alleges that the capture was made within three miles of a point of land to the westward of the entrance of the harbor, which the captors stoutly deny.

Thirdly. One of the witnesses, the cabin-boy of the Victor, who was a deserter from the capturing vessel, swears that he was told by the shipping master, in the presence of the master of the Victor, that the Victor was a blockade runner, and that she was going to run the blockade, as he understood, on the voyage for which he had been shipped.

The freight agreed to be paid for carrying the cargo to Matamoras was about one-half the invoice value of the goods. The wages paid the engineers and crew of the Victor was at least double the usual wages for similar services.

Notwithstanding these extraordinary expenses, and the usual long delay in discharging cargoes outside of Matamoras bar, (the vessel could not pass the bar,) there was no charter-party and no provision or agreement for lay days or demurrage at Matamoras.

A motion for leave to invoke the masters deposition in another case, where, as in the present case, the master, Pearce, claimed to be the owner as well as the master of the vessel, and in which the shippers of the cargo were the same parties who shipped the greater portion of the Victor’s cargo, and where the master himself swore that he was captured in the vicinity of Cedar Keys in the Gulf of Mexico, and was bound to Bay Port, in the State of Florida, was refused by the court. It is almost impossible, in such a communication as this, to state clearly all the minute circumstances of a prize cause which may point either towards condemnation or restitution.

Fourth. It seems to me the Victor must be condemned in the Supreme Court.

I am, &c.,

THOMAS J. BOYNTON, United States Attorney.

Hon. Edward Bates, Attorney General, Washington.