,000), because that
he had calumniated the good ship _Murillo_, and caused her prejudice and
injury by detaining her a couple of months in the waters of Cadiz. The
persons who instituted this action forget that the Spanish courts have
no jurisdiction in the matter of libels published in England. And as for
the prejudice caused to the vessel, it is incredible that the British
Government should be so weak as to wait for letters from Lloyd's agent
before opening an inquiry into the deaths of some three hundred of its
subjects and the identity of the dastardly scoundrel who was the cause
of their deaths, who disabled the ship that held them, and then slunk
off, leaving them to the mercy of the midnight sea. That the _Murillo_
was that vessel, even those who maintain that she cannot be proved
legally guilty do not attempt to deny. It is true, as they say, that
moral certainty is one thing, legal certainty another. But there was
seldom a clearer chain of circumstantial evidence pointing to the
perpetrator of any crime than that which convicted the _Murillo_ of
being the misdemeanant. She was off Dungeness at the hour of the
disaster, and she was in contact with a ship; this the imprisoned master
admitted in his log. But he alleged that the ship could not have been
the _Northfleet_. He said he came into collision with a vessel; that he
stood by her for half an hour; that one of her boats put off with some
persons on board carrying a lantern; that they went round her examining
whether there was anything wrong; and that no call having been made to
him for assistance he steamed away. But there was a discrepancy between
the entry in his log and that in the log of the engineer. The latter, an
Englishman, stated that the engines of the _Murillo_ were backed before
the collision, that she went astern afterwards, and then went on ahead.
The delay altogether was only for a few minutes. No mention of the
half-hour. The engineer had no object in telling a lie. The master of
the _Murillo_ had. No other ship was in collision off Dungeness that
night. Besides, what meant the order to the _Murillo_ to come on at once
to Cadiz if she had been in collision, and not stop at Lisbon, whither
she was bound as port of call, if not to get her into limits where
justice is notoriously blind and halt? Argument is unnecessary and
childish; it was the _Murillo_ which cut down the _Northfleet_. But
Spain will never exact retribution for the destruction of t