Mr. Lincoln to Mr.
Blaine.
[Extract.]
Legation of
the United States,
London, September 27, 1889.
(Received October 7.)
No. 90.]
Sir: I beg to invite the Department’s attention to
the inclosed form of the information which it is necessary to present under
oath in extradition cases here in order to procure a provisional warrant to
prevent an escape before the application to the foreign office. In practice,
Mr. Hodson, the messenger of the legation, signs and swears to the
information and personally appears before the magistrate. In neither of the
two cases which have occurred since my own arrival here was there
information furnished the legation that a warrant had been issued in [Page 463] the United States for the arrest
of the accused, and it was with great reluctance in each case that I
assented to the making of the required statement in that regard by Mr.
Hodson.
It is, of course, probably true in each case that a warrant had been issued,
but in order that the sworn information maybe in all cases strictly true, as
it should be, I suggest that the State authorities, in moving the Department
of State, be required to make their applications in such form as will enable
the Department to communicate the facts to be set forth in the
information.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure in No. 90.]
Metropolitan Police District,
to wit:
The information of — —, of —, taken on oath this — day of— —, in the year
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and —, at the Bow street Police
court, in the county of Middlesex, and within the Metropolitan police
district, before me, the undersigned, one of the magistrates of the
police courts of the metropolis, sitting at the police court aforesaid,
who saith that — —, late of —, is accused [or convicted] of the
commission of the crime of-within the jurisdiction of — and now
suspected of being in the United Kingdom. I make this application on
behalf of the — Government.
I produce— —.
I am informed and verily believe, that a warrant — has been issued in— —
for the arrest of the accused; that the said Government will demand h—
extradition in due course, and that there are reasonable grounds for
supposing the accused may escape during the time necessary to present
the diplomatic requisition for h— surrender, and I therefore pray that a
provisional warrant may issue under the provisions of 33 and 34 V., c.
52, s. 8.
Sworn before me, the day and year first above mentioned, at the police
court aforesaid.
[Extradition forms. L. 12. Information.]
