Mr. Seward to Lord Lyons.
My Lord: I have submitted to the President of the United States your lord ship’s note of the 25th instant, in which permission is solicited by her Britanic Majesty’s government for a British man-of-war to take her Majesty’s consul general at Havana to Charleston or Wilmington, in order that he may proceed to Richmond to remonstrate with certain insurgents there concerning grievances relative to British subjects, and to insurgent agents in Great Britain. After due consideration it was made my duty to answer, that the request of her Majesty’s government cannot be conceded. It is presumed that the grounds for deciding it will present themselves without special explanation to her Majesty’s government. It is, however, proper here to say, that they are such as would cause this govern ment to decline any request of any foreign power for leave to communicate in any way upon any subject whatever, with disloyal citizens in arms against the United States.
I have the honor to be, with high consideration, my lord, your obedient servant,
Right Hon. Lord Lyons, &c., &c., &c.