from the local authority of the province to quit the country within about four weeks. Dr. Gutowski informs me that no reason has been assigned to him. for this order. He is an American citizen, though born in Poland, having been regularly naturalized in the United States in the year 1839. He has a regular passport at such citizen, issued at the legation in January, 1851, and visaed at the office of the ministry of foreign affairs in Berlin on the 9th February, 1851. Born in the district of country where he now is, where his brother and two sisters now reside, and where his parents resided till their death, which happened not long since, he is the proprietor there of a farm costing three thousand thalers, which he is at present engaged in taking care of and cultivating. This is the information which he gives me. He declares that he has done nothing to deserve the order he has received; that he respects and obeys the laws of Prussia; that he has taken no part whatever in politics; and that he can prove his good conduct by the most respectable persons. What Dr. Gutowski asks is, that he may have the permission and authority of the government of his Majesty to remain where he is for a year, or until he can dispose of his property without being obliged to sacrifice it. I should hope that this request of a respectable and inoffensive man, as Dr. Gutowski certainly appears to be, may be considered a reasonable one, and that the permission he asks for may be granted. I pray your excellency to receive, on this occasion, the assurance of my distinguished consideration. His Excellency Baron VON MANTEUFFEL, D. D. BARNARD. Minister of Foreign Affairs, &c., &c., &c. Mr. Barnard to Mr. Hormann. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: Your letter of the 28th June, sent by mistake to the consul at Bremen, has just been received by me. I have, without a moment's delay, prepared a communication, to be sent to his Majesty's minister of foreign affairs, in regard to your case. You will be informed as soon as the result is known. Your obedient servant, Mr. CHRISTIAN HORMANN. D. D. BARNARD. Mr. Barnard to Baron Manteuffel. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, MONSIEUR LE BARON: Christian Hormann, a citizen of the United States, informs me by letter, dated at Petershagen, the 28th June, that on the 26th June he was arrested at that place, taken to Minden, a distance of one German mile and a half, and placed in prison, where he was kept during the night; that the next day he was taken before the local magistrate or authority at Minden, and, on examination, discharged provisionally, and allowed to return to Petershagen, but only after his signature had been obtained to a writing which he did not comprehend, and after his passport had been taken from him and retained. The history of Christian Hormann, as he relates it, is this: He was born in 1825, in the village of Seidfeld, belonging to the parish of Petershagen. His father emigrated to the United States in 1830, one of his sons, older than Christian, having already resided there several years. In 1838, his mother went to the United States, and he accompanied her, then being of the age of thirteen. It had been lately resolved to dispose of the property of his father and mother in Petershagen, and he came to Prussia for this object, and with authority from them. On his arrival at Petershagen, he presented himself before the proper authorities with his passport as a citizen of the United States, and other papers, which were found in proper order. His arrest, it appears, was upon some allegation that, as a boy of thirteen years of age, he had offended against the laws of Prussia in regard to military service, by accompanying his mother in her emigration to the United States. This seems to have been the idea of the authorities at Minden, whilst it appears that the authorities at Petershagen entertained no such opinion, but the contrary. I beg leave to ask your excellency's attention to this case, and that I may be informed whether it is claimed that the authorities in question had any ground of justification for this harsh proceeding towards Christian Hormann. If no justifications can be alleged, I am sure his Majesty's government will not allow the case to pass without the proper rectification and redress. I seize this occasion to offer to your excellency the assurances of my distinguished consideration. His Excellency BARON VON MANTEUFFEL. Mr. Bates to Mr. Barnard. D. D. BARNARD. UNITED STATES CONSULATE, Aix-la-Chapelle, July 2, 1852. SIR: Mr. B. Meyer, a native of Paderborn, in the province of Westphalia, emigrated seven years ago, at the age of eighteen, to the Uni ted States, for the purpose of becoming permanently located there; became a naturalized citizen of the same, and is furnished with a passport from the Secretary of State, dated May 6, 1852. He has returned to Germany for the benefit of his health, to see his relatives, and to attend to some private business which requires his personal presence at Paderborn. Before emigrating, he did not obtain the permission of the Prussian government to do so, and since his arrival in Germany, he has been furnished with a copy of a judgment dated November 22, 1851, of the Konigliches Krieysgericht, of Paderborn, addressed to his mother, and condemning him to a fine of fifty thalers, as not having complied with the laws of Prussia with regard to military service. This copy I inclose to you, marked A. On receipt of this document, he addressed a letter to the burgomaster of Paderborn, dated New York, 20th March, 1852, stating that he emigrated for the purpose of locating himself permanently in America, and not for the purpose of avoiding military service in Prussia, &c. * * * * This letter was sent by him to the burgomaster, through an attorney of Paderborn, a personal friend of his. No written official answer has been received to it. The burgomaster simply stated, verbally, to the attorney by whom the letter was presented, that he could do nothing in the matter, and that Mr. Meyer would be obliged to serve in the army if found at Paderborn. Other information to the same effect has reached him through personal friends of the family, who occupy official positions at Paderborn, and he is at a loss to know what to do. Go to Paderborn he must, be the consequences what they may. He has a mother living there, seventy years of age, whom he has not seen for many years, and, moreover, has important business, of family affairs, to attend to. His intention is to remain in Germany about three months. In reply to his question as to what he should do, I have given him. my opinion that, as a properly naturalized citizen of the United States, he could not be liable to military service in Prussia; but that I saw no proper ground or chance for interference until some proceedings had been officially commenced against him to compel him to do so. Not being very familiar with the Prussian military laws, I send the papers left with me to you, begging you to instruct me in the matter, both as to advising him what to do and as to the course to be pursued in case he should go to Paderborn, be arrested, and held to military service. I have informed him that I should ask your advice. It is an affair which ought to be settled amicably with the authorities, for Mr. Meyer has given me to understand that he holds some property there, which is in danger of being confiscated in the ordinary course of law. Mr. Meyer's passport is perfectly in good order. I did not see his papers of naturalization, but he tells me that he has them here, if we wish them. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, JOHN C. BATES. Mr. Barnard to Mr. Bates. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have received your letter of July 2, in regard to the matter of Meyer. My hands, just now, are full of these cases. I shall lose no time in bringing the case of Meyer to the notice of the government. I have arranged for a special interview with Baron Manteuffel to-morrow on the whole subject. The questions that arise are not without serious difficulty. I hope, however, to be able to make an amicable arrangement, which shall relieve Mr. Meyer and all other American naturalized citizens, situated as he is, from the embarrassments to which they are now subject. I am not prepared, at this moment, to say that the counsel you have given Mr. Meyer, involving a delicate and long-mooted point of international law, is free from doubt; and I earnestly advise Mr. Meyer, at least, to wait till he hears further from this legation, and not to go to Paderborn at present, to encounter there a judgment recorded against him in a matter which the Prussian law regards as criminal, and in face, also, of the official declaration that, if he comes there, he will be put into the army. With great respect, your obedient servant, J. C. BATES, Esq., Consul, &c. D. D. BARNARD. Mr. Barnard to Baron Von Manteuffel. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Berlin, July 8, 1852. MONSIEUR LE BARON: A person whose name is Meyer, born in Paderborn, in Prussia, in the year 1827, and now a citizen of the United States, emigrated to that country in the year 1845, when he was eighteen years of age, having been furnished with a regular Prussian passport. At the time of his emigration the subject of the military requirements of the Prussian laws, and the necessity, or propriety, of his procuring a permit of emigration was not thought of. Subsequently the subject recurred to him, and he requested his relatives and friends in Paderborn to attend to the matter, and procure for him a permit of emigration, which they promised to do. Sometime afterwards he went from the eastern to a remote western part of the United States, where he remained for some years, and until recently, and during this period, no communication from his family in Paderborn reached him. On his return, in the early part of the present year, to the city of New York, he learned for the first time that his friends had neglected to procure for him a permit of emigration, and that proceedings had been instituted against him. for violation of the military laws of Prussia, and he had been condemned to pay a fine of fifty thalers. This judgment was rendered in the royal circle court of Paderborn on the 22d November, 1851. On receiving this information he addressed a letter on the subject to the burgomaster of Paderborn, dated the 20th March, 1852, a copy of which I have the honor to inclose to you herewith. He received no answer to this communication except a verbal one, through a friend, that the burgomaster could take no step in the matter, and that if he came to Paderborn he must serve in the Prussian army. Earnestly desiring from a sense of filial duty, as well as an urgent call of business, to visit Paderborn, Mr. Meyer has arrived in Europe. He has an aged mother living at Paderborn, and there is property there in which he has an interest, which is in danger of being sacrificed without his personal presence and attention. He has no desire, I believe, to remain a moment longer than the business which calls him there may positively demand. His request is to be permitted to visit Paderborn, and, at the same time, that such measures may be taken in his behalf that he shall be secure against arrest and all annoyance on account of the fine that has been imposed upon him, as well as on the ground of any claim upon him to enter or serve in the Prussian army. He has a regular passport as an American citizen from the proper authority at Washington. I hope his Majesty's government may find no difficulty in acceding to this reasonable request of Mr. Meyer. It does not admit of a doubt that this man has not been guilty of any intentional breach of the laws of Prussia. He left Prussia, as all his acts and his solemn oath demonstrate, with the bona fide intention of changing his residence and his country, and of becoming the subject of another State. This he has done. And it can no more be predicated of him that he left Prussia with the "intention" of avoiding his military duty, because he chanced to neglect the formality of a permit of emigration, than the same thing could be said of the thousands of others who emigrate yearly from Germany, and who may have complied with that regulation. Doubtless it is to be regretted, and Mr. Meyer himself regrets, that a permit of emigration had not been procured for him at the time of his emigration, since such is the legal regulation. But if such permit would have been granted to him without hesitation, if asked for at the time, as I presume admits of no doubt, there would seem to be no good reason, since he has been guilty of no crime, but simply of the neglect of a formal regulation, why he should not now receive such permission, or something equivalent to it, to take effect from the period of his emigration, and which shall effectually protect him from all annoyances as a citizen of the United States visiting Prussia on his lawful affairs. I desire on this occasion, as on all occasions, to appeal to the friendly disposition of his Majesty's government towards the United States. On this ground I ask his Majesty's government to consider whether there is not something better to be done in cases of this sort which are now occurring, and likely to occur quite frequently, than to insist on |