No. 330.
Mr. Lowell
to Mr. Blaine.
Legation of
the United States,
London, July 15, 1881.
(Received July 28.)
No. 218.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the reception
of your instruction
[Page 541]
No. 168, in
relation to the case of Joseph D’Alton, who has been arrested under the
so-called “coercion act.” You also refer me to your No. 166 for directions
how to treat his case, if his citizenship shall be satisfactorily
established, and if the circumstances of his alleged arrest are such as to
call for action. As I have received no proofs of his citizenship or
statement of the circumstances of his arrest, I have not yet taken any
proceedings in relation thereto.
I have the honor also to acknowledge the reception of your instruction No.
172, in respect to the case of Joseph B. Walsh, stated to be a citizen of
the United States, who appears to have been arrested in March last under the
provision of the act above referred to. You directed me to lose no time in
making the necessary inquiries into the case of Mr. Walsh’s arrest and
detention, intimating the probability that Mr. Barrows, the consul at
Dublin, might aid me in this investigation.
I accordingly addressed a letter to Lord Granville, on the 8th of June, on
this subject, and on the 29th of that month received a reply from his
lordship, inclosing a copy of the warrant on which Mr. Walsh was
apprehended. On the 1st day of July instant I addressed another note to Lord
Granville, requesting to be furnished with the details of the charges
against Mr. Walsh. On the 9th instant I received a reply from his lordship,
declining to give any further information on this subject beyond that
contained in the warrant itself. I inclose a copy of this
correspondence.
On the 1st of July instant I wrote to Mr. Barrows, the consul at Dublin,
asking him to inquire into the facts of the case and ascertain what specific
acts Mr. Walsh had committed since September 30, 1880, to justify the
issuing of this warrant. On the 4th instant I received a reply from Mr.
Shew, the vice-consul, stating that application had been made for the
required details, but he has not as yet supplied me with any further
information.
You state that if I shall find that the circumstances of this case, in the
light of your instuctions in Nos. 166 and 172, are such as to call for
interference on the part of the Government of the United States, I am to
make such representations as shall conduce to Walsh’s speedy trial, or, in
the absence of specific charges, to his speedy release.
It will give me great pleasure to communicate to Lord Granville the views you
have so clearly and eloquently expressed as to the injustice of some of the
features of the so-called “Protection act,” and especially its retroactive
character. But I would respectfully suggest whether any step would be gained
toward the speedy trial or release of Walsh by an argument against the law
itself under which he was apprehended. So long as Lord Granville expressly
declines to make any distinction between British subjects and American
citizens in the application of this law, a position which I presume may be
justified by precedents in our own diplomatic history, I submit to your
better judgment whether the only arguments I can use in favor of Walsh must
not be founded upon some exceptional injustice in the way in which he has
been treated. If this shall appear by the report of the consul to have been
practiced, I shall press for his trial or release with great earnestness.
But if it shall be shown that he has experienced no more harshness than the
majority of his fellow-prisoners have suffered, I do not feel by any means
sure that your instructions would authorize me to make any special
application on his behalf.
I have, &c.,
[Page 542]
[Inclosure 1 in No. 218.]
Mr. Lowell to Earl
Granville.
Legation of the United States,
London, June 8,
1881.
My Lord: Referring to the interview which your
lordship was kind enough to grant me on the 3d instant in reference to
the case of Joseph B. Walsh, arrested under the coercion act at
Castlebar, county Mayo, on the 8th March last, I have now the honor to
request that you would, at your convenience, furnish me, in order to my
better understanding of the facts of the case, with a copy of the
warrant under which he was arrested and with such particulars as to the
offense with which he is charged as may be within your knowledge, Mr.
Walsh having furnished me with evidence satisfying me that he is a
naturalized citizen of the United States, though I have no reason to
think that Her Majesty’s Government were aware of the fact when the
warrant was issued. As your lordship will observe by the dates, Mr.
Walsh has already suffered a three months’ imprisonment to the manifest
detriment of his affairs, and the President, while anxious not to
embarrass in any way the action of a friendly government in dealing with
a very difficult and delicate question of domestic policy, cannot but
also feel solicitous not to ignore any just claims of American citizens
to his intervention in their behalf.
I have, &c.,
[Inclosure 2 in No. 218.]
Lord Granville to
Mr. Lowell.
Foreign
Office, June 28,
1881.
Sir: In compliance with the request contained
in your letter of the 8th instant, I have now the honor to forward a
copy of the warrant under which Mr. Joseph B. Walsh, who is said to be a
naturalized citizen of the United States, was arrested at Castlebar,
county Mayo, Ireland, on the 8th of March last.
Her Majesty’s Government have also had under their consideration the
application made by you on the 10th instant, requesting to be furnished
with particulars of the charge “under which Mr. Daniel Sweeney, or
McSweeney, an American citizen, had been arrested on the 2d of June and
lodged in Dundalk jail.
In the first place I beg leave to assure you that Her Majesty’s
Government are very sensible of the friendly feeling towards this
country, and of the appreciation shown by the President of the United
States with regard to the difficulties presented by the abnormal
condition of affairs at this moment in a portion of the United
Kingdom.
It will not, I trust, be necessary to enter at great length upon the
reasons which, in the opinion of Her Majesty’s Government, prevent them
from recognizing any distinction between the liability of foreigners and
British subjects in respect of unlawful acts committed within the limits
of British jurisdiction, or from admitting any claim to exemption on
behalf of any person, whether alien or citizen, from the operation of
the laws which equally affect all persons residing in the dominions and
under the protection of the Crown.
It will, it is hoped, suffice to refer to the dispatch written on the
18th of December, 1848 (see British and Foreign State Papers, vol. 47,
p. 1242), to Mr. Bancroft by Mr. Buchanan, where he admits that the
application of the law suspending the writ of habeas corpus (11th and
12th Victoria, cap. 35) was one to which his government might have
“submitted in silence” if it “had been carried into execution in the
same impartial manner against the citizens and subjects of all foreign
nations.”
On the present occasion Her Majesty’s Government have no reason to
believe that there is ground to suppose that American citizens have met
with exceptional treatment.
I have, &c.,
[Page 543]
[Inclosure to inclosure 2 in No.
218.]
(No. II, 44 Victoria, chapter 4.)—An act for the better protection of
person and property in Ireland.
warrant to arrest.
Whereas by our order, dated the 4th day of March, 1881, and made by and
with the advice of the privy council in Ireland, and by virtue of the
act made and passed in the forty-fourth year of the reign of Her
Majesty, Queen Victoria, entitled “An act for the better protection of
person and property in Ireland,” and of every power and authority in
this behalf, we specified and declared that the hereinafter-mentioned
part of Ireland (that is to say), the county of Mayo should from and
after the 5th day of March, 1881, be and continue a prescribed district
within the meaning and provisions of the said act.
And whereas our said order is still in force:
Now we, the lord lieutenant general and general governor of Ireland, by
virtue of the said act, and of every power and authority in this behalf,
do by this warrant declare Joseph B. Walsh, of Castlebar, in the eounty
of Mayo aforesaid, to be reasonably suspected of having, since the 30th
day of September, 1880, been guilty as principal of a crime punishable
by law, that is to say, inciting others to intimidate certain of Her
Majesty’s subjects with a view to compel them to quit their lawful
employments, committed in the aforesaid prescribed district, and being
the inciting to an act of intimidation, and tending to interfere with
the maintenance of law and order. And this is to command you to whom
this warrant is addressed to arrest the said Joseph B. Walsh in any part
of Ireland, and lodge him in Her Majesty’s prison at Kilmainham, in the
county of Dublin, there to be detained during the continuance of the
said act, unless sooner discharged or tried by our direction.
Given at Dublin
Castle
the 7th day of March,
1881.
COWPER.
To the sub-inspector of the royal Irish constabulary
at Castlebar, in the county of Mayo aforesaid, and his assistants,
and to Capt. St. George Gray, governor of Kilmainham prison
aforesaid.
[Inclosure 3 in No. 218.]
Mr. Lowell to Earl
Granville.
Legation of the United States,
London, July 1,
1881.
My Lord: I have to thank your lordship for your
letter of the 28th ultimo, inclosing a copy of the warrant under which
Mr. Joseph B. Walsh was arrested at Castlebar, county Mayo, Ireland, in
the month of March last. It appears by the copy of a certificate sent to
me that Mr. Walsh was duly admitted by the superior court of the city of
New York, on the 16th day of October, in the year 1875, to be a citizen
of the United States of America.
I have been instructed by Mr. Blaine to make the necessary inquiries into
the cause of Mr. Walsh’s arrest and detention, and I should feef much
obliged to your lordship if you could furnish me with a statement of the
dates, places, and other details of the specific acts said to have been
committed by Mr. Walsh upon which it was thought proper to issue the
warrant in question.
I have, &c.,
[Inclosure 4 in No. 218.]
Earl Granville to
Mr. Lowell.
Foreign
Office, July 8,
1881.
Sir: I have lost no time in referring to the
proper department of Her Majesty’s Government the desire, expressed in
your letter of the 1st instant, to be furnished with a statement of the
dates, places, and other details of the specific acts said to have been
committed by Mr. Joseph B. Walsh, upon which the warrant was issued for
his arrest on the 8th of March last, at Castlebar, county Mayo,
Ireland.
In reply, I beg leave to remind you that in the letter which I had the
honor to address
[Page 544]
to you on the
28th ultimo it was pointed out that Her Majesty’s Government consider
that no distinction can he made in these circumstances between
foreigners and British subjects, and that, in the case of the latter,
the only information given is that contained in the warrant.
I regret, therefore, that I am not in a position to be able to supply you
with further details respecting the arrest of Mr. Walsh.
I avail, &c.,
