Mr. Burnley to Mr. Seward
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your note of the 14th instant relative to the two apprentices of the Cuzco, in which you are good enough to inform me that this government does not deem itself under either a legal or moral obligation to deliver up the aforenamed deserters or to pay any damages for their detention, and that this decision is based upon the ground that in a similar case which occurred in England the British government refused to deliver up two American deserters.
I was under the impression, when your note of the 16th ultimo reached me, that it had been implied that the boys would be given up, owing to an expression made use of by R. A. Hill in a letter which formed one of the enclosures with regard to John Williams. “He will be given up to any one authorized to receive him;” the other being in the naval hospital of New York, unfit for service of any kind. I will, however, do myself the honor of transmitting a copy of your note to her Majesty’s government, and would beg leave to repeat, what I mentioned in my note of the 18th ultimo, that the name of the other boy is not Arthur Cox but Alfred Dewick.
I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.