No. 348.
Mr. Dart to Mr. Cadwalader.
Montreal, April 18, 1876.
Sir: Some months since one Charles Worms was arrested in this city upon a warrant issued by Mr. Justice Ramsay, of the Queen’s Bench, charged with the crime of forgery in the city of Philadelphia; a hearing was had, and said Worms remanded for extradition. His counsel sued out a writ of habeas corpus, returnable before Chief-Justice Dorion, where a hearing was had, and all the points were raised in the arguments that are now pending, as I understand it, between our own and the British government. The case attractad considerable attention, and our judges all consulted in reference to it. Chief-Justice Dorion decided that Worms should be remanded for extradition; that the imperial act of 1870 did not apply to the Ashburton treaty; and, if it did apply in terms, it could not be operative against the treaty, and that when the prisoner was in the jurisdiction of the United States he could be tried for any offense. An appeal was taken in Worms’s case [Page 621] to the supreme court of the Dominion of Canada, which, does not sit until next June—an appeal in such cases being allowed by the act creating the supreme court, and Mr. Justice Dorion declined to hold that act unconstitutional. The minister of justice, Hon. Edward Blake, was applied to to extradite said Worms, notwithstanding such appeal, and he issued his warrant for that purpose, sustaining, as I understand it, all the points contended for by the American Government in this controversy. Yesterday Worms was surrendered to the American officer, and is now in the United States.
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I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Consul-General.
Hon. John L. Cadwalader,
Assistant Secretary of State Washington, D.
C.