prizes enter but she was arrested by order of the federal

court.

The proceedings were instituted and pursued without any of the forms for protecting citizens. As the undersigned minister plenipotentiary has said, the assertion of an enemy of the Republick was sufficient for causing a prize to be seized, often the privateer which had brought her in, and sometimes for the arrest of her captain, no proof was required from the enemy consul who instigated the arrest; he was not obliged to give security for the damages which might result from the procedure, if it were unfounded; the captain was not allowed to remain in possession of his property, on giving security for its value; the prizes were not valued; they simply placed them in the hands of the officers of justice; rarely were they permitted to be sold; and then the sale was made with slowness, and not till the consent of the two parties was obtained. In fine, when after much delay and expense, notwithstanding the shifts of a crafty chicanery, the complainants proved nothing they advanced, the prizes were adjudged to the captors, but indemnification for damages and losses occasioned by this seizure, was refused.

The undersigned minister plenipotentiary knows but two affairs, that of la Nostra Senora del Carmen, at Rhode Island, and that of la Princessa des Asturias, at New York, where security was given to the party complaining, and where damages and interests were allowed to the captors. -Yet the tribunals have always allowed damages to the captured, when they have declared the prizes illegal. The least pretext was sufficient to obtain from a tribunal the arrest of a prize; it was sufficient to allege that the privateer had taken one or two cannon, one or two barrels of powder, opened some port holes in the territory of the United States.

In the affair of the two prizes of the French privateer Les citoyens de Marseille, which entered the port of Philadelphia armed and commissioned, repaired in the same port, and sent out under the eyes of the government, the only thing in question was, that some port holes were pretended to have been opened in the vessel after her departure from Philadelphia; the court of Charleston was of opinion that the holes had been opened, and condemned the two prizes. The superior courts did not adopt this

opinion, and the first sentence was reversed; but after how long a time, how much care, fatigue, pain, and expense?

In the affair of the Princessa des Asturias, at New York, as will be seen hereafter, only two cannon and a score of fusees were in question; behold, what is called an armament, behold, how words are abused!

Prizes have been arrested under still more frivolous pretexts. The privateer La Parisienne had infringed a revenue law of the United States, she was seized and condemned by the district court. This tribunal, doubtless agrecable to rules prescribed by the law, had restored this vessel to her owners, on making them pay her value. The privateer, after having executed the sentence of the court, went out and made two considerable prizes: one was sent into Charleston and the other into Savannah. They were both arrested at the instance of the English consuls, under the pretext that the tribunal had acted illegally, by restoring the confiscated privateer ;-that notwithstanding this restitution and the payment of her value to the treasurer, she had always remained the property of the United States, and could not make any lawful prize. This ridicu lous assertion was seriously opposed in the district and circuit courts, and in the supreme court of the United States; at the close of the proceedings, which lasted near two years, the prizes were adjudged to the captors, but without allowing them damages.

In like manner have been treated the rich and numerous prizes of the French privateers La Mere Michelle, Le Brutus, Le General Laveaux, and Le Vengeur. The captors have gained their causes in three courts, and have not obtained damages.

Were it necessary to cite here all the vexatious proceedings commenced against French vessels, the undersigned minister plenipotentiary would be obliged to write a volume. He contents himself with adding to what he has just said, the affair of the Vengeance and that of the Casius.

Affair of the Vengeance.

Ar the beginning of 1794, the predecessor of the undersigned charged the captain of La Dorade, a French galliot, with a particular mission for St. Domingo. He order

ed him to go to New York with his galliot, to take some powder which was at Sandy Hook on board the frigate La Semillante, belonging to the Republick, and which made part of her equipment, and to carry them to general Laveaux. This vessel had formerly been armed for war; she had been built with port holes; consequently she at tracted the particular attention of the government. May difficulties were thrown in her way; but finallyfter having submitted to all the requisite inspections, she sailed with a formal clearance from the collector of the customs of Philadelphia. She went to New York, where the captain acquitted himself of his mission, and thence to Port de Paix, where the powder was delivered to general Laveaux, At that place this galliot was sold to an inhabitant of St. Domingo, who armed her, equipped her completely, partly at Port de Paix, and partly at Cape Francois. She was called La Vengeance, and given to captain Berard, as commander, who sailed from St. Domingo with a commission in good form, and a crew entirely French, to cruise against the enemies of the Republick. A few days after her departure, she captured a Spanish vessel called the Princessa des Asturias, laden with a rich cargo, and carried her into the port of New York, in the summer of 1795.

The Spanish consul, availing himself of the facility given him by the law of the 5th June, 1794, had the prize arrested under the pretext that the privateer had been armed in the United States; and we saw officers of the government appear to defend his assertion;-Mr. Harrison, attorney of the district of New York, and Mr. Troup, clerk of the district and circuit courts, to which appertain the decision of the cause.

It was under these auspices that the prize was arrested, and the captain of the privateer saw himself obliged to defend her against the allegation of a pretended armament: But it was not sufficient to have arrested the prize, they must also attack the privateer. This did not fail to happen. Shortly after, Mr. Harrison, without laying aside his office of attorney for the captured, but acting in this instance in the name of the United States, informed against La Vengeance, and required her arrest under the same. pretext which had been used for arresting her prize. This information was not founded on any affidavit or material

proof. But Mr. attorney, according to his letter to the Secretary of State, had no need of any; he had seen in the hands of the Spanish consul documents sufficient for having the prize condemned. In fine, not content with these measures, the same attorney, some time after, the two other causes being still pending, exhibited a second information against the privateer, and had her arrested anew, for having exported arms in violation of a law of the United States, which was in force when the Vengeance sailed from New York. This information was made on the simple declaration of Mr. Giles, marshal of the court, who, as informer, was to share part of the confiscation. So that all the officers of the district court (except the judge) were interested in the condemnation of the privateer or her prize. It is well to observe, that during the course of the process the moneys arising from the sale of the prize were deposited in the hands of the clerk (attorney for the Spaniards) those arising from the sale of the prize in the hands of the marshal (informer and interested in the confiscation)-so that their interest was to spin out these causes by means of appeal; and so it has happened.

As this last information is here principally in question, it is proper to enter into some details on the subject. It appeared in the allegation, that the privateer had exported from the United States two cannon, twenty muskets, and fifty barrels of powder.

Two cannon and twenty muskets could scarcely be an object of commercial speculation. The existence of the cannon has never been proved, and certainly, whatever muskets were found on board, were only for the defence of the vessel, without a wish to infringe the laws of the American government. The powder in truth was of the greatest consequence, but the consul of New York hastened to give his declaration under oath, and to prove by witnesses, that this powder had been taken from on board La Semillante, and made part of her equipment. Mr. Harrison did not yield to this evidence.

However, the three causes went on; but the yellow fever, which took place at New York, spun them out to considerable length. The judgment of the district court was not given till November. In the mean time, an express, which captain Berard had sent to St. Domingo, on

the first arrest of his prize, had returned with_papers, proving in the most convincing manner, that the Vengeur [Vengeance] had arrived at Port de Paix without any armament or equipment whatever; and that she had been sold, armed and equipped wholly, and commissioned as a privateer, on the territory of the Republick. These documents were certificates of the general, the ordonnateur, and of the greater part of the principal officers of St. Domingo; the accounts of armament attested by all the providers, [fornisseurs] &c. the whole executed in the most authentick form..

The undersigned hastened to communicate these documents to the Secretary of State of the United States, and to request that he would order the attorney of New York district to stay the proceedings he had instituted in the name of the government; there was nothing done with them, and Mr. Harrison continued his prosecution.

In fine, the moment came for deciding these three causes. They were pleaded with much preparation before the district court of New York: The privateer was acquitted of the charge of illegally arming, and the prize adjudged to the captor. Mr. Harrison did not appeal as to the privateer; but the cause of the prize was carried to the circuit court, and finally to the supreme court; and these two tribunals confirmed the sentence of the district court.

As to the exportation, the judge was of opinion that the vessel should be condemned for it; and grounded his sentence only on the article of twenty muskets. Some of the attorneys for the privateer had considered it as of so little consequence, that they had not conceived it would be. brought in question; and had omitted to speak of it in their pleadings. It was natural to appeal from such a sentence; the consul of New York was the appellant, and required, agreeable to a law of Congress, that the vessel should be given up to him, under security during the appeal: but he could not obtain it; the vessel was sold for less than a tenth part of the cost of her armament; and the money was deposited till the conclusion of the

process.

The circuit court, as was expected, set aside the sentence which condemned the privateer; but Mr. Harrison, not content with all he had hitherto done, immediately