scribed his name, was at the time of so doing, Chief Judge of the Orphans' Court for Baltimore City, duly elected, commissioned and qualified. In Testimony Whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name and affix the seal of the said Court, this 10th day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight. Augusta J. Webster, being first duly sworn, on oath, deposes and says: That she is a citizen of the United States, at present residing in the District of Columbia, and is the widow of the late William Webster; that she was married to the said William Webster on the 30th day of November, 1868, and lived with him from that time until his death, which occurred on the 19th day of June, 1897; that no children were ever born of the said marriage. Affiant further states that it was understood in the Webster family and she was informed by her late husband, the said William Webster, that he was born in Portland, Maine, in the year 1815, a citizen of the United States, and that he always remained such; he also stated to affiant on various occasions, and such was the understanding in the family, that he was never married to any one except herself. Affiant further states that the certificate of the Deputy Collector of Customs at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, hereto attached, was in the possession of the said William Webster at the time of his death and has since been in affiant's possession and affiant believes the facts set forth in said certificate to be true. AUGUSTA J. Webster. Subscribed and sworn to before me this 9th day of December, 1912. (Seal.) META A. FAULCONER, Notary Public, D. C. [Enclosure.] CUSTOM HOUSE, PORTSMOUTH, N. H., Collector's Office, March 20th, 1873. I certify that the following is an abstract of a Protection issued in the District of Wilmington, State of North Carolina, on the seventh day of May, 1832, and renewed at this office Feby. 21st, 1833, for William Webster, who was born in the State of Maine. Viz.: "Age, 18 yrs. (Seal.) A. F. HOWARD, Dep-Collector. MY LORD: EXHIBIT 3. The American Minister to Lord Palmerston. 32 UPPER GROSVENOR ST., I have been instructed by the President of the United States to call the immediate attention of your Lordship to information which has been received by the American Government relative to the extension of the authority of Her Majesty's Government over the New Zealand Islands. From recent communications from one of the Naval Officers of the United States in the Pacific it appears, that the British authorities of New South Wales have been negotiating Treaties, or Conventional arrangements, with some portion of the Native Chiefs, for the surrender of those Islands to Great Britain, and have actually gone so far as to issue Proclamations declaring that the limits of the Territory of New South Wales have been extended over the whole of the group of Islands (embracing New Zealand) lying between the latitude of 34 degrees 30 minutes, and 47 degrees ten minutes south, and 179 degrees east longitude, from the Meridian of Greenwich. This subject is one of so much importance to the rights and interests of the people of the United States, as to make it necessary that their Government should be informed of the intention and consequences of these proceedings on the part of Her Majesty's Government, and the measures which may already have been adopted. In addressing your Lordship however upon this subject, it may be proper that I should distinctly announce that the interest which the United States feel in it, arises, as your Lordship is doubtless apprized, alone from the bearing which such proceedings may have upon the commerce and fisheries of its Citizens, so important and widely diffused in the Pacific Seas. Indeed, it is now ascertained that the number of American subjects engaged in the whale fisheries are fully equal to those both of Great Britain and France. Whilst therefore the Government of the United States would be indifferent to the circumstances of territorial acquisition, it yet finds itself called upon, under existing circumstances, to remonstrate against any arrangement that may be contemplated, which would affect injuriously the rights and customary privileges of the vessels of its Citizens resorting to those seas, or which are calculated to impart new and exclusive advantages to the Ships and Subjects of Great Britian. I have accordingly been instructed to address your Lordship upon the subject, and to ask for such information as Her Majesty's Government may feel authorized and disposed to give, in relation to the character of the measures which have been adopted; the extent to which they have been carried, and the policy which dictated them. It will not be necessary that I should at present enter further into the subject. I shall therefore forbear doing so, in the confident expectation that I shall be honored with such information from your Lordship as to the views of Her Majesty's Government as will be satisfactory to that which I have the honor to represent. I am with highest respect and consideration, (Signed) A. STEVENSON. Lord Palmerston to the American Minister. SIR: FOREIGN OFFICE, By my letter of the 15th January, I had the honor to acknowl edge the receipt of your letter of the 28th of December last, respecting the proceedings of the British authorities at New Zealand, and I informed you that I had referred your letter to the Secretary of State for the Colonial Department. I now proceed to answer the inquiries which it contains. Your letter stated to me, in substance, that you had been instructed by the President of the United States, to call my immediate attention to information which the American Government had received about the extension of the authority of Her Majesty's Government over the New Zealand Islands; that the interest which the United States' Government feels upon this subject, arises solely from the bearing which the proceedings on the part of Her Majesty's Government, in this matter, may have upon the Commerce and Fisheries of the Citizens of the United States in the Pacific seas; that whilst the Government of the United States would be indifferent to the circumstances of territorial acquisition, yet it finds itself called upon to remonstrate against any arrangement that may be contemplated which would affect injuriously the rights, and customary privileges, of the vessels of its citizens resorting to those seas, or which are calculated to impart new and exclusive advantages to the ships and subjects of Great Britain; and that accordingly you are instructed to ask for such information as Her Majesty's Government may feel authorized and disposed to give, in relation to the character of the measures which have been adopted, the extent to which they have been carried, and the Policy which has dictated them. With respect to the character of the measures to which you refer, and the extent to which they have been adopted, I have the honor to inform you, that Her Majesty was pleased to command the Secretary of State for the Colonial Department to notify in the London Gazette of the 2d of October, 1840, the acquisition of the territory of New Zealand to the crown of Great Britain; and of course that acquisition carries with it all those Rights which belong to territorial sovereignty. In the Gazette of the 24th of the following month was a further notification, stating that in pursuance of the powers vested in the Queen by the act 3 and 4 Victoria (cap. 62, sec. 3) Her Majesty had by letters patent under the great seal of the United Kingdom, been pleased to erect the Islands of New Zealand into a distinct and separate colony; and in the same Gazette was notified the appointment of Captain Hobson, of the Royal Navy, to be Governor and Commander in Chief of the Colony. As to the circumstances under which this acquisition has been made, and the Policy which has dictated it, I cannot better inform you upon these points, than by transmitting to you a copy of Instructions, dated the 14th of August, 1839, which were addressed to Captain Hobson, then holding the appointment of Her Majesty's Consul in New Zealand, and which form part of the correspondence upon this subject which was laid before Parliament early in the last session. With respect to the bearing which this acquisition to the British Crown may have upon the Commerce and Fisheries of the United States, Her Majesty's Government trusts, that those who for purposes of fishery, or of Commerce, may resort to that quarter of the Globe, and who may have occasion to touch at New Zealand will, in their intercourse with those Islands, find the protection of a settled Government more advantageous to them, than the anarchy and confusion which have hitherto prevailed therein. The Government of Her Majesty has no desire to discourage the resort of Whalers and other ships of Commerce to the Ports of New Zealand. But it is proper that I should state to you, for the information of your Government, that Great Britain will reserve to her own subjects, under the general principle of the Law of Nations, the exclusive right to fish within three miles of such of the bays, harbours and other parts of the Coasts of Western Australia and of New Zealand, as may from time to time be actually in the occupation of British subjects. I am not aware, as at present informed, that I can state anything further in reply to your representation; but I shall be happy to furnish you with any additional information which you may wish to possess, and which it may be in my power to give upon this subject. I have the honor to be with high consideration, Sir, (Signed) PALMERSTON. |