Mr. Seward to Mr. Burnley.
Sir: Your note of the 6th instant, on the subject of certain vessels belonging to British subjects, captured as prizes, and whose condemnation as such has been sought in the court of the United States for the eastern district of Louisiana, has been referred to the consideration of the Attorney General. That functionary, in a communication to this department, observes that the objections taken by her Majesty’s government to the proceedings in those cases, seem to rest entirely upon supposed errors in law committed by the court adverted to. Mr. Bates adds, however, that the grounds of complaint are questions of law, subject to judicial determination only; that the constitution of this government, and its division into co-ordinate departments, is well known to her Majesty’s government, and that it ought not to excite surprise that when one department of the government has lawfully assumed jurisdiction of a particular case, any other coordinate department should decline to interfere with or presume to control its legitimate proceedings. That the judgments of the court for the eastern district of Louisiana are subject to revision by the Supreme Court, as those of the admiralty in England are to review by the House of Lords; and that he knows of no power in the executive government to revise and reverse the judgments of the courts of law, or to criticise and condemn their supposed legal errors.
I am, sir, your very obedient servant,
J. Hume Burnley, Esq., &c, &c, &c.