Office of the Historian

No. 3.
Earl Granville to Sir E. Thornton.

[Extract.]
Foreign Office, June 17, 1881.

Mr. Lowell informed me on the 3d instant that he had received instructions from his government by telegraph to make representations to me on the subject of a naturalized American citizen who had been arrested in Ireland on the 8th of March last, to ask what was the crime for which he had been arrested, and to press for his being brought to trial.

Mr. Lowell added that he had been promised that fuller instructions on the subject should be sent him by mail.

I answered that such representations took me much by surprise, considering the circumstances of the case and the understanding which existed between the two countries on this point of international law; but 1 added that, as he expected fuller instructions, it would be better to await their arrival before discussing the question.

I now transmit for your information a copy of a letter which I have received from Mr. Lowell, in which, he requests to be furnished with certain particulars connected with the arrest, under the act for the better protection of person and property in Ireland of the 2d March, 1881, at Castlebar, County Mayo, on the 8th March last, of Joseph B. Walsh, who is stated to be a naturalized citizen of the United States.*

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