No. 22.
Mr. Stewart to Earl Granville.—(Received
August 31.)
Brighton, March 30, 1871.
My Lord: I have the honor to acknowledge your lordship’s letter of the 28th instant, in answer to mine of the 22d, on the subject of the losses I have sustained by the occupation of my houses in Paris and its neighborhood by French troops during the late war, informing me that your lordship had taken the opinion of the law-officers of the Crown as to the liability of the French government to compensate British subjects resident in France for loss and damage to their property during the late war; and that your lordship had been advised by them that British subjects resident in France would have, in their opinion, no just ground of complaint against the French authorities in the event of their property having been destroyed by the invading armies,
I beg to submit to your lordship that my case does not come within the terms of the one submitted to the law-officers of the Crown. At the commencement of the siege of Paris all the inhabitants of Boulogne-sur Seine were ordered by the French government to leave their houses, and my tenant at No. 5 Avenue des Princes, Boulogne sur-Seine, accordingly removed his furniture and gave up possession to the authorities, who occupied the premises for more than five months, with upward of 150 French soldiers, who remained in it until the signature of the treaty of peace, and then left it in the most ruinous conditon. The German troops passed one night on the premises after the temporary occupation of Paris, but did no additional damage to the property. My other houses within the enceinte of Paris were occupied wholly by French troops and French peasants. “No destruction of property by invading armies” consequently took place in my case.
In my opinion, my claim is similar to that made by your lordship on the German Government for the loss sustained by British ship-owners whose vessels were seized and sunk near Rouen. In the one case ships were seized and destroyed by the German authorities; and, in the other, houses were seized and destroyed by the French authorities, both belonging to British subjects, and demanding similar compensation.
I have now, therefore, to beg that your lordship will be so good as to forward my claim on the French government to Lord Lyons, with a request that his excellency will give me such assistance as may be required in his capacity of English ambassador, in order to induce the French government to entertain my claim when the proper time shall arrive for submitting it to the authorities. I beg, however, to add that I am informed that, by the law of France, compensation is due not only to foreigners, but to French subjects for injury done to their property by invading armies, and for the occupation of their houses by French troops, and for damages resulting therefrom. I trust, therefore, that it will not be necessary to call for Lord Lyons’s intervention.
I have thought it my duty to trouble your lordship with this letter, [Page 370] in order that I may point out the difference between my case and that submitted to the law-officers of the Crown, and I may add that I think it will be found that few British subjects are in the same position as I am with respect to my French property.
I have, &c.,