Mr. Seward to Mr. Marsh.
Sir: Your despatch without number, dated May 6, accompanied by printed copies of two treaties lately concluded between the kingdom of Italy and the French empire, and of a ministerial circular extending the benefits of those treaties to the states referred to in the circular, has been received and duly considered. The President is pleased to learn that your efforts to secure for the [Page 328] United States the privileges accorded by the treaties in question to France and to the states mentioned in the circular have been successful.
Pursuant to the request made by you at the instance of the secretary general of the ministry of foreign affairs, the President instructs me to transmit the accompanying full power, authorizing you to negotiate with his Majesty’s government a new treaty of commerce to take the place of the existing treaties between the United States and the kingdoms of Sardinia and the two Sicilies. You will accordingly, upon the receipt of this instruction, make known to his Majesty’s government your readiness and authority to enter upon the negotiations with any person similarly empowered on its part, and you will proceed to prepare a projet of a convention which shall embody the principal features of the two treaties last referred to, with such modifications and additions as your experience and known familiarity with the respective interests of the two countries may suggest. When such a projet shall have been drawn up, and agreed to by his Majesty’s plenipotentiary, you will forward a copy of it hither for the consideration and further instruction of the department.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
George P. Marsh, Esq., &c., &c., &c., Turin.