Mr. Hale to Mr. Seward
Sir : During the past summer Nubar Pacha, the Egyptian minister of foreign affairs, then in Paris, where in fact he is still stationed, prepared a project for a very considerable change in the administration of justice, both civil and criminal, in Egypt.
It is believed that the project originally contemplated the creation here of a single tribunal which should relieve the foreign consulates of all their judicial powers. The project was communicated originally to the governments which, at the close of the Crimean war, were parties to the treaty of Paris of 1856.
The consuls general for most of those powers being absent from Egypt during the summer, but little was known here of the plan or of its reception by the governments before which it was laid, but the impression of their representatives here was decidedly unfavorable to any change of the nature proposed in the existing arrangements.
Within the last few weeks my colleagues who were absent have returned, and I learn that the project has been generally accepted in principles but with the proposal of important modifications in details not yet definitively settled.
You will understand that no communication whatever on the part of the Egyptian government has been made to me on this subject. If a definitive arrangement should be agreed upon, which the governments of Austria, France, Great Britain, Italy, Prussia, and Russia, already addressed, would be willing to accept, this arrangement would then doubtless be submitted to the other governments in relation with Egypt, of course with a confident expectation that it would be accepted by them also.
If my information be correct of negotiations which have been exclusively conducted in Europe and not in Egypt, the original project has been so far modified that it is already settled that no change shall be made in the present exclusive jurisdiction of the consuls over the subjects of their respective governments in criminal cases. This exclusive jurisdiction is expressed in the treaty of 1830, between the United States and the Sublime Porte, in terms stronger, perhaps, than in any other treaty, so that in some of the discussions on the subject our own treaty has been referred to as securing their privilege in this respect, by other governments having “the most favored nation” clause in [Page 102] their treaties. Although the Egyptian government is now seeking to make new arrangements with foreign powers, it is, of course, not denied that the existing treaties with the Porte are binding until altered by common consent of the parties thereto.
The proposed changes, then, would only concern civil cases, about which it must be admitted the language of all existing treaties, our own included, is less explicit than in criminal cases, and scarcely allows in strictness of interpretation the breadth of privilege hitherto enjoyed. I believe it is now proposed that a permanent tribunal might be established in Egypt, a bench of paid judges in which the European element should predominate, for the decision alike of all civil cases in which Franks should be parties, without regard to their nationality.
To a scheme of this sort I believe the home governments of France and England have signified with considerable cordiality their willingness to assent, and by the other governments to whom the proposition has been addressed it has been so far favorably entertained that it is believed that a conference of agents specially appointed on their part for its consideration will be assembled in Egypt during the present winter. Should such a conference take place I shall doubtless be able to give you information of its proceedings.
I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.