memorandum., March 14, 1872

memorandum.

In the year 1855 several attempts were made, especially in the Prussian Ehine province, to enlist Prussian subjects into service in the British foreign legion.

The inquiries instituted produced the suspicion that the English consul at Cologne, Curtis, was concerned in these enlistments. He was therefore subjected to a judicial investigation in accordance with ¶ III of the Prussian pénal code of April 14, 1851, which is as follows:

Whoever enlists a Prussian into the military service of foreign powers, or brings him to the persons enlisting for the same; likewise whoever seduces a Prussian soldier to desert, or designedly assists his desertion, is punishable with imprisonment of from three months to three years. The attempt to commit these acts is subject to the same punishment.

The said Curtis, who had become by naturalization a Prussian, was condemned at the first trial to three—upon appeal to six—months’ imprisonment.

At the desire of the British government this punishment was, by means of royal pardon, remitted, and he was recalled from his post at Cologne.