Mr. Dallas to Lord Clarendon.
May 1, 1856.
[545] The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States, has the honor to acknowledge the receipt yesterday of a note, dated on *the 30th of April, 1856, from the Earl of Clarendon, Her Majesty’s principal secretary of state for foreign affairs. This note, purporting to be a reply to the statements, views, and arguments contained in the dispatch addressed by Mr. Marcy, the Secretary of State, to Mr. Buchanan, the predecessor of the undersigned, [Page 646] on the 28th of December, 1855, a copy of which dispatch was left with the Earl of Clarendon, on the 29th of January, 1856, and purporting also to set forth additional reasons, with documents and affidavits not heretofore communicated to the American Government, impeaching the veracity and moral standing of the principal witnesses, prosecuting officers and others, connected with the judicial investigations had on the proceedings within the limits of the United States to effect the enlistment of soldiers for the British army, it will be the care, as it is the duty, of the undersigned to transmit, in copy, to Mr. Marcy by the steamer of Saturday, the 3d instant.
The undersigned having received no instructions which authorize his interference with the correspondence on the subject of the Earl of Clarendon’s note, withholds any observation, and he begs his lordship to accept the renewed assurance of his most distinguished consideration.