No. 147.
Mr. Fish to Mr. Bancroft.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch of the 5th instant, No. 147, in which, referring to my letter of the 22d of July last, [Page 195] to Baron Gerolt, you state that Mr. Delbräck informs you that when the time shall come for negotiating a peace with France, one of the conditions to be proposed and insisted on will be the recognition of the principle of exempting private property on the high seas from seizure. You then inquire whether you will be authorized to propose, on your part, a recognition in the pending treaty relating to consulships and inheritances between the United States and the North German Union.
In reply, you are informed that you are authorized to obtain the recognition of the principle of the exemption of private property of citizens or subjects of either of the two parties from capture on the high seas by either privateers or public vessels of the other.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,