In the absence of the Earl of Derby to Wickham Hoffman, May 6, 1876

Lord Derby to Mr. Hoffman.

Sir: I referred to Her Majesty’s secretary of state for the home department your note of the 3d instant, in which you called attention to some recent cases of extradition from Canada, and I have the honor to state to you that I have been informed, in reply, that the home secretary has nothing to add to his former opinion upon the case of Winslow, except that he differs from the opinion of the Canadian judges, in the cases referred to, and that he would wish your attention to be called to a different decision in the case of the Lennie mutineers heard yesterday, at the Old Bailey, where Mr. Justice Brett held that a prisoner delivered up under the French extradition treaty for murder could not be put on his trial for being an accessory after the fact.

I beg leave also to refer you to the views already expressed in my note of the 4th instant, as to the distinction to be drawn in these cases between that which is within the province of courts and that which belongs more properly to governments to decide.

I have, &c.,