Lord Lyons to Mr. Seward.
Sir: Her Majesty’s government were much concerned, to find that two British subjects, Mr. Patrick and Mr. Rahming, had been subjected to arbitrary arrest; and although they had learnt from a telegraphic despatch from me that Mr. Patrick had been released, they could not but regard the matter as one requiring their very serious consideration.
Her Majesty’s government perceive that when British subjects as well as American citizens are arrested they are immediately transferred to a military prison, and that the military authorities refuse to pay obedience to a writ of habeas corpus.
Her Majesty’s government conceive that this practice is directly opposed to the maxim of the Constitution of the United States “that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”
Her Majesty’s government are willing, however, to make every allowance for the hard necessities of a time of internal trouble; and they would not have been surprised if the ordinary securities of personal liberty had been temporarily suspended, nor would they have complained if British subjects falling under suspicion had suffered from the consequences of that suspension.
But it does not appear that Congress has sanctioned in this respect any departure from the due course of law; and it is in these circumstances that the law officers of the crown have advised her Majesty’s government that the arbitrary arrests of British subjects are illegal.
So far as appears to her Majesty’s government, the Secretary of State of the United States exercises, upon the reports of spies and informers, the power of depriving British subjects of their liberty, of retaining them in prison, or liberating them, by his own will and pleasure.
Her Majesty’s government cannot but regard this despotic and arbitrary power as inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, as at variance with the treaties of amity subsisting between the two nations, and as tending to prevent the resort of British subjects to the United States for the purposes of trade and industry.
Her Majesty’s government have therefore felt bound to instruct me to remonstrate against such irregular proceedings, and to say that, in their opinion, the authority of Congress is necessary in order to justify the arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of British subjects.
I have the honor to be, sir, with the highest consideration, your most obedient, humble servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, &c.