Mr. Pike to Mr. Seward
Sir: I am without any of your favors since my last, excepting your No. 248. The annual ceremony of opening the legislative chambers takes place the 18th instant, for which the King and his ministers have already returned to town. The two bodies contrive to have about a dozen sessions a year between them. They practice a very old-fashioned and cumbrous form of legislation, as you may suppose, or they would have no need of such frequent sittings.
The cattle plague has at length reached Holland, and spread in the interior. It is naturally regarded with alarm in a country so full of domestic animals as this, especially of the bovine race.
The apprehended visitation of the cholera is now but little feared, as the cool weather already approaches.
The crops in this part of Europe are generally good, in this country especially so.
In England there has been much complaint, but the apprehensions of a bad harvest are less now than they were a fortnight ago, the weather since then having been remarkably fine.
Still, prices have risen, and paying rates for our breadstuffs and provisions seem likely to prevail, a circumstance favorable to our finances.
I have the honor to be, with great respect, your most obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State.