No. 22.
Mr. West to
Earl Granville.
With reference to my dispatch of the 25th ultimo, I have the honor to inform your lordship that the House of Representatives, after a long debate, adopted the resolution reported from the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the terms of which are as follows:
“Resolved, That the President be requested to obtain a list of American citizens, naturalized or native-born, under arrest or imprisonment in Great Britain by authority of said government, with a statement of the cause or causes of such arrest and imprisonment, and especially of such citizens as have been thus arrested and imprisoned under the suspension of the habeas corpus in Ireland, and that he communicate such information, when received, to this House, together with all correspondence now on file with the Department of State relating to any existing arrest and imprisonment of citizens as aforesaid.”
I do not think it necessary to trouble your lordship with comments on the abusive speech of Mr. Robinson, of New York, in support of his amendment, to which no importance was attached, but at the same time 1 would remark upon the fact of the resolution having been adopted, as showing the importance attached to conciliating the Irish vote.
Mr. Orth, of Indiana, however, stated, in support of the resolution which he, as a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, reported back to the House, that it was one simply of inquiry, calling upon the State Department to furnish to the House such information as may be accessible in reference to alleged wrongs committed against certain American citizens within the jurisdiction of the British Government, adding that sundry petitions and memorials to this effect which had reached the committee formed the basis of it. In this sense the House adopted the resolution, whereupon Mr. Orth moved to reconsider the vote by which it was adopted, and also that the motion to reconsider be laid on the table.