DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
465 
 
more men-including the prisoners-took passage on board, and embarked on 
board as passengers. It was admitted that they went on board armed for the

very purpose of seizing the vessel, and under the command of one llogg, who

assumed to be in the confederate service, and professed to have papers fiom
the 
confederate government, and under whose orders they acted. The vessel left

Matamoras on the 16th of November, and at half past 12 on the night of the

17th the men thus embarked under his orders rose upon the master and crew

and seized the ship, cast the master adrift in the Gulf of Mexico, and took
the 
ship to Belize, in the British Honduras, where it would appear they abandoned

the ship and sold the cargo, part of which bad found its way to Liverpool.
In 
January last three of the men (two of whom were British subjects) were found

to be at Liverpool, and on the information of the master of the schooner,
who 
also happened to be there, Mr. Adams, the American minister, made a requi-

tion to Sir George Grey under the above act, and he thereupon issued his
war- 
rant to the magistrates of Liverpool, under which they issued their warrants
to 
arrest the men, and they were accordingly so arrested, and were then charg;
d 
with piracy, on the evidence mainly of the master of the ship seized, who
dis- 
tinctly stated that Hogg told him he had papers to justify what he did, and

that he was a major in the confederate service, and that he (the master)
believed 
him to be so, and he also stated that the othtr men acted under his orders,
and 
that when they seized the ship they said they did so for the confederates;
and 
that llogg spoke about Jefferson Davis. The statements of the prisoners were

likewise given in evidence, and were to the effect that they were engaged
by 
Major llogg, of the confederate service, for the purpose of seizing the ship,

and that lie showed them documents signed by a General Bee, and stating that

they were authorized by Jeffeison Davis to do so. Upon the evidence adduced

before the magistrate it was submitted, on the part of the prisoners, that
the act 
was not piracy, and not within the treaty. The magistrate (at the suggestion

of Mfr. Justice Willes, at the assizes) remanded the men from time to time,
in 
order to allow of their making an application to this court, the warrant
for their 
committal distinctly stating that they were committed, not for the purpose
of 
trial in this country, but of delivering up under the treaty. 
Mr. Edward James, Q. C., (with him Mr. Littler and Mr. F. 11. James,) had,

on behalf of the prisoners, obtained a rule nisi for a liaheas corpus, directed
to the 
jailer at Liverpool, for the purpose of bringing them up with a view to their

discharge, and now moved to make that rule absolute. 
M31r. Lush, Q. C., (with Mr. Milward and Mr. Lushington,) appeared to show

cause against the rule, instructed ou behalf of the American minister. "The

question (lie said) is, whether there is sufficient evidence before the magistrate

to justify him in committing the men for trial." 
The Lord Chief Justice. There is an antecedent question much more im- 
portant-whether the act applies where the offence is not exclusively within

the jurisdiction of the state making the requisition? And are you not in
this 
dilemma-that either this is not piracy., (in which view the case, of course,
is at 
an end) or, if it is piracy, that it is cognizable by the courts of this
country, 
and so is not within the treaty of extradition?  There appe rs to be th.
great 
difficulty. 
IMr. Lush said he was quite aware of it, and was prepared to meet it. What

was piracy?  Wheaton defined it to be the offence of depredating on the high

seas without the authority of any sovereign power. That was piracy "jure

gentium," by the common law or by the law of nations. But, then, there
was 
municipal piracy, or piracy created only by municipal laws, and which would

not be piracy by the law of nations; and the word included both. Now, here

the facts showed a prima facie case of piracy in the larger sense-piraey
by 
the law of nations. There was the embarking on board as passegers, the 
seizure of the ship on the seas, the casting the mster adrift, the abandon

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