Manor House, Shepperton, Middlesex,
29th September, 1866.
My Lord,
I have to acknowledge receipt of your letters of 21st and 26th inst., and I am glad to learn that two of the questions to which I ventured to direct your Lordship’s attention have, since 1860, been settled in a satisfactory manner.
As regards the third, viz., the limitation of shipowners’ liability, may I trouble you with an extract herewith[314] from the ‘New York Herald’ of 10th October, 1860, as the question is therein, I think, correctly stated. Since then I am aware that there has been an amendment in our law relating to the liability of Shipowners; but it would appear from the communication you have received from the Lords of Trade that while we have extended the limitation to foreign ships in cases arising in British courts, we have overlooked altogether the still more important part of the question so far as this country is concerned, and that is the unlimited liability of British shipowners in cases arising in foreign courts. If such is the fact, then we, I fear, have neglected a favourable opportunity of inviting foreign nations to place our ships in their courts on the same terms as we had placed their ships when thrown into our courts. Had we done so, I think the Government of the United States would have readily met us in so just and reasonable a request.
Considering, then, the position in which British shipowners would be placed if an action was raised against them in foreign courts for the recovery of claims arising through a collision at sea, your Lordship will perceive that this is not a question in which foreigners alone are interested, for we have given them all they asked in our courts, but one which deeply affects the interests of British subjects, and which, now more than ever, requires adjustment by special communication with the United States and those other countries where the responsibility of British shipowners is still unlimited. Since we have conceded all they require, it may be found more difficult now to obtain the necessary alterations in their law than it would have been at the time to which my previous communications referred; but I daresay that when the justice of our claim is represented, steps will still be taken to grant in their courts the same limitation of responsibility to our Shipowners as we have granted to their Shipowners in our courts.
I am gratified, to learn that the other questions are under consideration, and
I remain, my Lord,
Your most obedient humble servant,
W. S. Lindsay.
To the Right Hon. Lord Stanley, M.P.,
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,
&c. &c. &c.
Foreign Office, 3rd October, 1866.
Sir,