BRITISH SHIPS IN FOREIGN WATERS.
mmi so-called Porto Rico outrage has been denuded of its .I. worst features by an authenticated statement of the facts, but the affair, so far as regards any international aspect, remains exactly where it was at first. According to Reuter, a Spanish subject named Verges had added to rebellion the more dangerous, if not more serious, offence of traducing the Captain-General of Porto Rico in the newspapers of St. Domingo ; had telegraphed from St. Domingo to friends in Jamaica that he was about to visit them, forgetting that his message must pass through Porto Rico, while his voyage to Jamaica would carry him into the harbour of that island; and had, as a consequence, been seized while in Porto Rico Har- bour, forcibly taken off the British mail steamer on which he was travelling, and shot without trial, on his being brought ashore. The later account states that the man's name is Venegas, that he was charged with deserting from the militia and with embezzling public money, that the captain of the steamer, after some hesitation, gave him up under protest, and that he is now in prison awaiting his trial. On either version of the facts there was a demand made upon the captain of a British mail steamer while in a foreign port by the authorities of the port for the surrender of a person charged with crime committed within their jurisdiction—. what the offence charged was, what means there may have been of proving it, and how it was punished, are obviously matters without international bearing—and to this demand the captain unwillingly yielded. If he was not legally obliged to yield to it, he would not have been justified in so doing ; and he seems to have had a conviction, which, though shaken by the assurances made to him, was not entirely removed, that his vessel was a secure asylum for all who had taken passages and got on board of it. It is necessary to maintain no less than this to get any international question out of the arrest, and this was the view taken at first by some of the London journals ; but nothing is more certain than that a ship in a foreign harbour, and all on board of it, are subject for the time to the local law and to the local autho- rities; and therefore, had the original version of the story been true, we should have had no ground of quarrel with Spain, nor even locus standi, except what humanity would in any such case give us, for remonstrating with the Spanish Government. Ship captains cannot be expected to carry the whole law of nations in their heads, but a moment's considera- tion of our own practice should keep people from blundering about a matter like this. It is always safe to assume that foreign Governments will treat British vessels just as we do foreign vessels. And how monstrous would seem to us the pretension that our police could not take a thief out of a Spanish vessel in one of our docks or- harbours, and that whether he had entered the vessel from on shore or had come with it from a foreign port 1 That the British vessel in this case carried mails made no difference. International compact has given no immunity to mail steamers ; they are only trading vessels, though they perform a useful public service for hire, and their position is in no respect different from that of ordinary trading vessels. They must pay the Customs dues of every port they enter; they must show their papers • they may be seized for smuggling and other offences against the local laws ; and if they have taken a criminal into a port where justice has a claim upon him, he is as liable to arrest as if he were on shore. Yachts are better off than them in some respects, when they carry the flag of a Royal Yacht Club, being in that case treated as quasi-public vessels; but no yacht has the degree of immunity which the captain of the Eider' claimed for his vessel. That is by international usage conceded to public vessels--that is, to any vessel commanded by an officer commissioned for the purpose by his Government—and it is conceded to public vessels only. Even in the case of public vessels, however, the privilege must be used discreetly ; were a British man-of-war to carry Rochefort into a French harbour, the French Govern- ment would be entitled to resent its doing so as an outrage ; and though, according to our custom, political fugitives are never refused an asylum in a British man-of-war within the waters of the State to which they belong, even this might, in certain circumstances, lead to an unpleasant international con- troversy. To give any such privilege to a class of vessels which take on board without inquiry all who can pay for a passage would lead to consequences which would be found inconvenient in practice.
Had the Eider' been on the high seas—beyond the fringe of water adjoining the land to which by international usage the jurisdiction of States extends—and had Verges or Venegas been taken from it there, we should have had a very different affair to do with ; that would have been something like a repetition of the 'Trent' case, by a hazy reminiscence of which some of our contemporaries have been misled. On the high - seas, in time of peace, a vessel has the same inviolability as the territory of the State to which it belongs ; an ancient, though misleading metaphor, represents it as a moving portion of that territory ; the fact being that it has been found for the con- venience of all States that, when there are no belligerent rights to be enforced, the vessels of each, when on waters which are no State's property, should not be delayed in their voyages by being made answerable in any way to any authorities except those of their own nationality. Apart from compact, there is in time of peace absolutely no right of detaining or searching a foreign vessel on the high seas. The over-sea slave-trade is piracy by the law of every civilised nation, but apart from compact, even a slaver cannot be stopped on the high seas by a war-vessel of another flag than its own,—an immunity which the United States Government has repeatedly vindicated against the Government of Great Britain. Pirate-vessels may, of course, be seised without ceremony ; but if a vessel deemed to be a pirate have shown a flag, and prove to have a right to it, compensation is due if it has been taken possession of, or even if it has merely been stopped. The high seas are held to commence at three marine miles' distance from the land—the Spanish Government, founding on the ancient defi- nition which declared that national waters extended the length of a cannon-shot from the shore, claims six miles in its dealings with the Gibraltar smugglers, but the claim is not likely to be allowed—and had the Spaniard, be he thief or rebel, been taken from a British vessel at that distance from Spanish territory, an inexcusable outrage upon the British flag would have been committed, for which the British Government must have promptly exacted reparation. In time of war, it may be said, a neutral ship, other than a public ship, may be stopped by a belligerent war-vessel,—for the purpose of making sure of her nationality, to search for contraband of war intended for the enemy's use, to see whether she is trying to break a blockade, and in the case of Powers not bound by the Declaration of Paris, perhaps also to search for enemy's goods ; but the persons of enemy's subjects not engaged in the public service found on board are as inviolable as if they were on the neutral territory. Soldiers, sailors, diplomatic agents of an enemy found on board a neutral ship are in a different category ; they are quasi-contraband of war ; but if they are seized, the ship is seizable, and ought to be seized also. Great Britain formerly claimed the right of searching for and arresting deserters and sailors liable to im- pressment, but the claim has long been virtually abandoned.
The subjects of a State or their ships may, no doubt, have by treaty exemption from the local law within the jurisdiction of another State ; but European Governments do not enter into such treaties with other European nations, except as to some small matters which it is convenient to make over to Consuls ; and it may be believed that no Government volun- tarily parts with so essential an element of sovereignty as the supremacy of its own law over all within its own territory. Eastern Governments do this, but it is because they cannot help it; and they know, moreover, that unless they did so there would never be an end to quarrels between them and the Euro- pean nations whose subjects settle on their shores. In European countries and their colonies foreigners must, speaking generally, be content to take the law, and its administration too, as they find it. One of our contemporaries seems to think that an English- man's house in a foreign country 18 in ordinary circumstances in- violable, mysteriously protected against the intrusions of the police, Ilut this is a fond delusion. As Englishmen have no such privilege at home, it is not very surprising that they are not so privileged abroad, and in fact, their houses are as the houses of the people among whom they dwell. Embassies only are so privileged, and their privilege is not altogether abeo..i lute ; while Consulates, unless under treaty, do not possess it. In this, and in more important matters, to fare as the natives of the country fare is what the British re- sident in a foreign country must expect. In an extreme case of legal abuse the British Government might withdraw its ambassador or declare war, as it may do wherever- any British interest has been infringed upon ; but these are unwieldy
resources, not at all convenient to use, only used on great occasions, and when used, not always beneficial to the indivi- dual who has been injured. To stay at home is the only safe course for the Briton who has insular misgivings about foreign justice, and there are cases in which this is less convenient than running all the risks of living abroad.
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