No. 299.
Mr. Evarts
to Baron Blanc.
Washington, January 10, 1878.
Sir: I have received your note of yesterday, announcing the death of His Majesty Victor Emanuel II, and the accession to the throne of Italy of His Royal Highness the Prince of Piedmont.
You do no more than justice to the sympathies of the people of the United States in supposing that they will in common with the people of Italy deplore that mournful event.
Our grief, however, will be tempered if not assuaged by the expectation that during the reign of the new sovereign those measures of his predecessor which are believed, by contributing to Italian unity and strength, to have done so much to renew the ancient renown of that great country, will be persevered in.
I offer, &c.,