I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most
obedient, humble servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.
Mr. Archibald to Lord Lyons.
British Consulate, New York,
April 11, 1864.
My Lord: Referring to my despatch of the
28th ultimo, reporting the discharge of Alexander McCoppin from Fort
Warren, I have the honor to bring under your lordship’s notice the
proceedings which have taken place in reference to the condemnation
of the schooner Nymph, of which Mr. McCoppin was master.
This vessel was seized off Matagorda bay, on the coast of Texas, on
the 22d April last, while on a voyage from Belize, Honduras, to
Matamoras, and was taken to New Orleans, where, although there was
no prize court at the time
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established there, the vessel and cargo were sold—the vessel for the
sum of two thousand one hundred and twenty-five dollars, and the
cargo for three thousand seven hundred and forty-one dollars and
fifty-nine cents—-and the proceeds were sent to either the Navy or
Treasury Department at Washington.
The papers found on board the vessel were brought to New York, and
proceedings instituted in the prize court here, under which a
decree, by default of condemnation of vessel and cargo, was entered
on the 27th of October last, sixty days being given for furthers
proof and to allow the real owners to intervene. That time having
expired, and no one having intervened, a final decree of
distribution will, I understand, be entered in a few days.
I beg leave to submit to your lordship that the proceedings in this
case, are, as it appears to me, irregular, and the decree of
condemnation ought to be set aside; at all events the proceeds in
the hands of the government ought not to be distributed until time
can be had for a review of the proceedings in the case, for which
purpose Mr. McCoppin has placed the matter in the hands of the
consul.
It seems to be repugnant to justice, and at variance with ordinary
notions of the grounds of a decree in rem, to
allow a condemnation where the res itself has
never been subjected to the process of the court nor brought within
its jurisdiction. In this case no monition was served on the master,
or on any part of the effects condemned, which, as I have said, were
not within the reach of the court. A publication of notice of the
libel in one of the local newspapers, as I am informed, took place,
which, under the act in reference to proceedings in the prize court,
might perhaps have availed if the res in
question were within their jurisdiction, and on this proceeding the
decree by default was founded.
The proceedings in the prize court do not appear until recently to
have become known to any parties interested in the vessel and cargo.
The owner of the vessel, it is stated, died many months since. Mr.
McCoppin, the master of the vessel, was confined in prison, first
here, and afterwards at Fort Warren, for the greater part of the
year. Neither the vessel nor any part of the cargo being brought to
this port, the proceedings in the case escaped my notice, and
consequently the name of the vessel will not be found in the list of
British prize vessels condemned in this district, which I recently
forwarded to your lordship.
Mr. McCoppin insists that the voyage in which the Nymph was captured
was honest and bona fide, and that her
destination was Matamoras, and no other port, the vessel having been
driven a little out of her course at the time she was fallen in with
and captured. He is now about to return to Belize to collect the
necessary evidence to sustain the claim of the owners to
restitution, and in the mean time it is but just, under the
circumstances, that the proceeds in the hands of the government
should not be distributed.
I have, &c.,
Lord Lyons, &c.,
&c., &c.
