Sir Julian Pauncefote to Mr. Blaine.

[Extract from telegram from the Marquis of Salisbury.]

Lord Salisbury regrets that the President of the United States should think him wanting in conciliation, but his lordship can not refrain from thinking that the President does not appreciate the difficulty arising from the law of England.

It is entirely beyond the power of Her Majesty’s Government to exclude British or Canadian ships from any portion of the high seas, even for an hour, without legislative sanction. Her Majesty’s Government have always been willing, without pledging themselves to details on the questions of area and date, to carry on negotiations, hoping thereby to come to some arrangement for such a close season as is necessary in order to preserve the seal species from extinction, but the provisions of such an arrangement would always require legislative sanction so that the measures thereby determined may be enforced.

Lord Salisbury does not recognize the expressions attributed to him. He does not think that he can have used them, at all events, in the context mentioned.