No. 137.
Mr. Fish to Sir Edward
Thornton.
Washington, May 17, 1876.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 13th instant, informing me, at the request of the governor-general of Canada, that one Maraine Smith, late of Detroit, was committed as a fugitive from justice, in the county of Essex, Ontario, upon the 4th of April last, and, as the usual application for his surrender under the extradition treaty had not been received, that upon the 4th of June he will be entitled to claim his discharge.
Upon the 11th ultimo the governor of Michigan addressed me, stating that the person referred to, after an examination, had been committed for the crime of murder, and was held to await extradition, and requested that the proper steps be taken for that purpose.
The case had not been brought to the attention of this Department prior to that time.
As Her Majesty’s Government, at the time of the receipt of this communication, had already informed the United States that Winslow and other fugitive criminals then in British jurisdiction, in whose cases the necessary steps had been taken, and who had been committed for extradition, would not be surrendered pursuant to the stipulations of the tenth article of the treaty of 1842, it was deemed advisable to desist from preferring applications for extradition in new cases until the final decision of Her Majesty’s Government on that question should be reached, and the governor of Michigan was informed of this conclusion.
While, therefore, requesting you to express the thanks of this government to his excellency the governor-general for hit courtesy in furnishing the information referred to, I have to request that you will inform him of the reason why no formal request has been preferred in this case pending the decision of Her Majesty’s Government in the Winslow and other cases now before it.
I have, &c.,