No. 3.
The Earl of
Derby to Mr. Macdonell.
Sir: I have received your dispatch of the 19th instant, inclosing copies of a correspondence with the Spanish minister for foreign affairs, from which it appears that orders have been given for the immediate payment to Her Majesty’s government of £6,700, as compensation to the relatives of the British subjects taken on board the Virginius and executed at Santiago, and that a further sum of £1,000 will be paid when the question has been definitely settled by the council of state.
I approve your proceedings in this matter, as reported in your above-mentioned dispatch, and I have to instruct you to express to Señor Ulloa the satisfaction with which Her Majesty’s government have learned that their proposals for the settlement of the question have been accepted by the government of Spain.
I am, &c.,