Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the First Session Thirty-ninth Congress

Mr. Seward to Mr. Burnley

Department of State, Washington, December 6, 1864.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Lord Lyons’s note of the 5th instant, informing me of his intended departure from Washington, on leave of absence, to recruit his health, and recommending you to me as her Majesty’s chargé d’affaires in the interim.

While profoundly regretting the cause which occasions his lordship’s absence, I shall be happy to correspond with you upon matters which may require the attention of this department or that of her Majesty’s legation.

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

J. Hume Burnley, Esq., &c., &c., &c.