No. 221.
Mr. Washburne to Mr. Fish.

No. 885.]

Sir: Referring to my dispatch, No. 758, of January 31, I have the honor to renew the suggestion therein made, that you should call the [Page 405] attention of naturalized citizens, born in France, to the inconvenience, expense, an dtrouble they are put to in returning to the place of their birth.

The French laws are well defined upon the subject, and I have no fault to find with the manner in which they are applied. When it is proved before a civil court that the party “has lost his quality of French citizen “he cannot serve in the French army; and when it is shown that he has lost this quality for over three years he cannot be punished for insoumission; but pending the trial and decision of the court the party may be imprisoned. This is not always done. He is often released on bail. But under all circumstances he must employ counsel, and is put, as I have said, to great inconvenience and expense. These cases are of almost monthly occurrence.

If the attention of our citizens of this class was called yearly to the French laws upon this subject, and they were cautioned against returning to France, it might save them this expense and inconvenience.

I have, &c.,

E. B. WASHBURNE.