errupted.

The United States had demanded of Her Majesty's Government the surrender
of certain fugitives from justice charged with crimes committed within
the jurisdiction of the United States, who had sought asylum and were
found within the territories of Her British Majesty, and had, in due
compliance with the requirements of the treaty, furnished the evidence
of the criminality of the fugitives, which had been found sufficient to
justify their apprehension and commitment for trial, as required by the
treaty, and the fugitives were held and committed for extradition.

Her Majesty's Government, however, demanded from the United States
certain assurances or stipulations as a condition for the surrender of
these fugitives.

As the treaty contemplated no such conditions to the performance of the
obligations which each Government had assumed, the demand for
stipulations on the part of this Government was repelled.

Her Majesty's Government thereupon, in June last, released two of the
fugitives (Ezra D. Winslow and Charles J. Brent), and subsequently
released a third (one William E. Gray), and, refusing to surrender, set
them at liberty.

In a message to the two Houses of Congress on the 20th day of June last,
in view of the condition of facts as above referred to, I said:

The position thus taken by the British Government, if adhered to, can
not but be regarded as the abrogation and annulment of the article of
the treaty on extradition.

Under these circumstances it will not, in my judgment, comport with
the dignity or self-respect of this Government to make demands upon
that Government for the surrender of fugitive criminals, nor to
entertain any requisition of that character from that Government
under the treaty.

Article XI of the treaty of 1842 provided that "the tenth article [that
relating to extradition] should continue in force until one or the other
of the parties should signify its wish to terminate it, and no longer."

In view, however, of the great importance of an extradition treaty,
especially between two states as intimately connected in commercial and
social relations as are the United States and Great Britain, and in the
hope that Her Majesty's Government might yet reach a different decision
from that then attained, I abstained from recommending any action by
Congress terminating the extradition article of the treaty. I have,
however, declined to take any steps under the treaty toward