Hoppin to the Marquis of Salisbury, October 3, 1879
Mr. Hoppin to the Marquis of Salisbury.
My Lord: Referring to your lordship’s note of the 23d of July to Mr. Welsh, in which it is proposed that the Government of the United States shall enter into an arrangement with that of Great Britain, by which an account Shall he rendered, and payment made, of expenses incurred in connection with cases of extradition, once annually, at the most convenient period of the financial year, I have the honor to state that Mr. Welsh sent a copy of your lordship’s note to Mr. Evarts immediately after it was received, and that I have now in hand the reply of the Department of State to the proposition in question, which I am instructed to communicate to your lordship.
The treaty of 1842, Article X, provides that “The expense of such apprehension and delivery shall he borne and defrayed by the party who makes the requisition and receives the’ fugitive.” The statutory provisions in regard to extradition are silent on the question of expenses. No legal objections are perceived to entering into such an arrangement as that proposed by your lordship.
An inconvenience, however, might arise from such an arrangement as the result of the following circumstances. There are very few requisitions for offenses against the Federal laws. Each State and Territory is required to bear the expenses of requisition and extradition in each case presented by it for the extradition of fugitive criminals from the justice of such State or Territory:
The expenses which the Government of the United States would be called upon by Great Britain to pay are such as are usually incurred about Scotland Yard, such as services of detectives, the expenses of keeping prisoners, &c.
These expenses the agent appointed by the President, on the nomination of the executive of the State, is expected to pay at the time of taking charge of the fugitive.
If in any case they should be left unpaid, as in some few cases they have been, the Department of State might be called upon to audit and pay a considerable sum at the end of the year without any fund under its control from which it could properly pay, and might, moreover, find it difficult to get reimbursement from the State. As the matter is now, each case can be scrutinized on its own merits and at the moment.
In view of these circumstances, the Department of State does not consider it expedient to enter into the arrangement proposed in your lordship’s note of the 23d of July last.
I have, &c.,