Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward
Sir: Parliament reassembled yesterday according to the adjournment. Many notices of motions were made, the only one relating to America being that of Mr. G. Shaw Lefevre, relative to the negotiation on the Alabama claims.
The health of the Earl of Derby has become so precarious that an impression has got abroad of the probability of his retirement at an early day. A leader in the Times of this week seemed to point in that direction. But so great are the difficulties in the way of the selection of a successor, that this step will be resorted to only under a sense of absolute necessity. Much as the absence of the premier in the House of Lords is felt from the want of any person of his party adequately to fill his place, the attempt to go on in spite of this disadvantage will be persevered in as long as possible, rather than to hazard a reconstruction in this stage of a transient parliament, with a dissolution full in view at the close of the present session.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.