Mr. Seward to Mr. Burnley
Sir: I recur to your note of the 15th of March, which relates to Bennett G Burley.
The honorable the Attorney General informs me that it is his purpose to bring the offender to trial in the courts of the States of Ohio and Michigan, for the. crimes committed by him against the municipal laws of those States, namely, robbery and assault, with intent to commit murder. He was delivered up by the Canadian authorities upon a requisition which was based upon charges of those [Page 105] crimes, and also upon a charge of piracy, which is triable not by State courts, but by the courts of the United States. I am not prepared to admit the principle claimed in the protest of her Majesty’s government, namely, that the offender could not lawfully be tried for the crime of piracy under the circumstances of the case. Nevertheless, the question raised upon it has become an abstraction. as it is at present the purpose of the government to bring him to trial for the crimes against municipal law only.
I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your obedient Servant,
J. Hume Burnley, Esq., &c., &c., &c.