Mr. Fox to Mr. Upshur.

Sir: Her Majesty’s Government, previously to the departure from England to the last steam packet, had already received information, though not officially, of the provisional occupation of the Sandwich Islands, in the name of Great Britain, by the officer commanding Her Majesty’s ship Carysfort.

I am directed by the Earl of Aberdeen to state to you, for the information of the Government of the United States, that the occupation of the Sandwich Islands was an act entirely unauthorized by Her Majesty’s Government, and that with the least practicable delay due inquiry will be made into the proceedings which led to it.

The British Government had already announced to certain commissioners, who arrived in Great Britain in March last on the part of the King of the Sandwich Islands, that Her Majesty had determined to recognize the independence of those islands under their present chief.

To that determination Her Majesty’s Government intend to adhere. At the same time, however, it is right that it should be understood that the British Government equally intend to engage, and, if necessary, to compel the chief of the Sandwich Islands to redress whatever acts of injustice may have been committed against British subjects by that chief or his ministers or agents, either arbitrarily or under the false color of lawful proceedings.

Instructions which during the past year were addressed by Her Majesty’s Government to the British consul residing in the Sandwich Islands and to the naval officers employed on the Pacific station, enjoined those officers to treat upon all occasions the native rulers of the Sandwich Islands with forbearance and courtesy; and, while affording due and efficient protection to aggrieved British subjects, to avoid interfering harshly or unnecessarily with the laws and customs of the native Government.

It has been the desire of the British Government, in regulating the intercourse of its public servants with the native authorities of the Sandwich Islands, rather to strengthen those authorities, and to give them a sense of their own independence by leaving the administration of justice in their own hands, than to make them feel their dependence upon foreign powers by the exercise of unnecessary interference. It has not been the purpose of Her Majesty’s Government to seek to establish a paramount influence in those islands for Great Britain at the expense of that enjoyed by other powers. All that has appeared requisite to Her Majesty’s Government has been that other powers should not exercise there a greater influence than that possessed by Great Britain.

I avail myself of this occasion to renew to you the assurance of my distinguished consideration.

H. S. Fox.