394 PARLIAMENTS OF THE DOMINIONS [PART mI 
The Revolutionary Government put on board a British 
vessel several of their opponents, and the British vessel 
took them to England. It was assumed in the case in 
question, that the placing on board was legal, but it was 
held that the detention on board after territorial waters had 
been passed was not legal, and that the master of the vessel 
might be liable in damages. This difficulty would hardly 
arise in the ordinary case of deporting from Canada over the 
boundary into the United States, but it might easily arise 
in the cases provided for in the Canadian Immigration Law, 
where persons are deported from Canada to their native 
countries involving a long sea-voyage. The question might 
be raised by an action in England for false imprisonment, 
and on the analogy of Lesley’s case it may be held that 
damages should be awarded. But though the judgement of 
the Privy Council is not binding upon the English Courts, 
it would nevertheless be strange if those Courts did not find 
some means of explaining away the difficulty. For example, 
if a man deported from Canada sued the captain of the 
vessel on which he was deported for damages for false 
imprisonment, it would be a sufficient answer that he had 
been legitimately removed from Canada by the Dominion 
Government, if the master were under an obligation by 
law of the Dominion, as is now the case, to return him to 
the country from which he came. In Lesley’s case it may 
be noted the captain contracted to take the Chilian Revolu- 
tionists expelled from Chili by the Government to England, 
and thus took upon himself more or less voluntarily the onus 
of assisting in their detention. 
It will be noted that in the opinion of the law officers in 
18551 there was a suggestion that the laws of a Colony might 
be applied outside its limits to persons domiciled in the 
Colony. The dictum was probably based on some misunder- 
standing or lack of full consideration, and it may have been 
mduced by the fact that by private International Law 
a Colony could, for example, levy estate duties on the whole 
of the personal property, wherever situated, of a person who 
* Above, pp.-372, 373. Cf. also pp. 375, 376.