No. 137.
Mr. Davis to Mr. Lowell.

No. 445.]

Sir: I inclose herewith, for your information, a copy of a communication to this Department from Mr. John Mullan, a citizen of California, in relation to the alleged arrest in Ireland, for the second time, of Mr. Henry George, an American citizen. The Department has no further information as to the facts than is contained in Mr. Mullan’s letter.

I will thank you to inquire carefully and fully into the matter, with a view to taking such action in relation to the case as the facts may war want.

I am, &c.,

JOHN DAVIS,
Acting Secretary.
[Inclosure in No. 445.]

Mr. Mullan to Mr. Frelinghuysen.

Sir: I have the honor very respectfully to invite your special and immediate attention to the telegraphic intelligence from London of yesterday by which the public [Page 290] are informed of the second arrest in Ireland of Mr. Henry George, a distinguished citizen of the United States, and for many years past a resident of the city of San Francisco, and State of California.

Mr. George is my personal friend, whom I have known favorably and intimately for many years. He is a journalist and author of very high order; a gentleman of rare intellectual acquirements, and of irreproachable private character; a native-born citizen of the United States; and his second arrest in Ireland is a matter which, in my judgment, should be promptly and fully inquired into by the proper authorities of the United States.

Congress being not now in session, and its members constituting the California delegation having repaired to their homes, leaves the case of Mr. George without remedy through his immediate representatives in Congress; and for this reason, among others, I therefore, as his personal friend (a native-born citizen of the United States, and resident of California, temporarily sojourning in Washington City), do request, that you may be pleased to immediately instruct the United States minister, resident in London, to officially and promptly and fully inquire into all the circumstances and causes of these two arrests of Mr. Henry George in Ireland; the character and nature of the charges preferred against him, if any; and promptly and fully to report to your Department in regard thereto.

This constant re-occurrence of the arrest, without adequate cause, of peaceable and law-abiding citizens of the United States while traveling through the isles over which the flag of England floats, is a matter of grave public concern, and one which demands the first attention of the proper authorities of the United States; and the friends of Mr. George confidently believe, if his arrest and confinment in an English prison have taken place, in these cases, either without sufficient or just authority of law, or without good causes first clearly established, that the United States will not permit so gross a wrong upon American citizens abroad to pass either unnoticed or undredressed.

I am, &c.,

JOHN MULLAN,
Of California.