To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, August 21, 1852.

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 9th instant, requesting information touching the Lobos Islands, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents by which it was accompanied. The instructions to the squadron of the United States called for by the resolution will be communicated on an early future occasion.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, August 27, 1852.

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 14th ultimo, requesting a copy of the correspondence of Mr. R. M. Walsh while he was employed as a special agent of this Government in the island of St. Domingo, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents by which it was accompanied. MILLARD FILLMORE.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, August 27, 1852.

I transmit a further report from the Secretary of State relative to the Lobos Islands. This report is accompanied by a copy of the orders of the Navy Department to Commodore McCauley, requested by the resolution of the Senate of the 9th instant.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, August 27, 1852.

As it is not deemed advisable that the instruction to Mr. R. M. Walsh,* a copy of which is herewith transmitted, should be published at this time, I communicate it confidentially to the Senate in executive session.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, August 27, 1852.

I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a supplementary convention relative to commerce and navigation between the United States and the Netherlands, signed in this city on the 26th instant.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

*Special agent of the United States in the island of St. Domingo.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, August 27, 1852.

I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a convention between the United States and Belgium for regulating the right of inheriting and acquiring property, signed in this city on the 25th instant.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, August 31, 1852.

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 21st instant, requesting information in respect to foreign postal arrangements, and especially cheap ocean postage, I transmit a report of the Secretary of State and the documents by which it was accompanied.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

EXECUTIVE ORDERS.

The SECRETARY OF WAR.

WASHINGTON CITY,

May 17, 1852.

MY DEAR SIR: I have just issued an authority to Hugh Maxwell, collector at New York, under the eighth section of the act of April 20, 1818, to arrest any unlawful expedition that may be attempted to be fitted out within his district, and I have given him power to call upon any military and naval officers that may be there to aid him in the execution of this duty; and I will thank you to issue the necessary instructions to the proper military officer in that district.

I am, your obedient servant,

MILLARD FILLMORE.

WASHINGTON CITY,

Tuesday, June 29, 1852-12.30 o'clock p. m. SIR: The tolling bells announce the death of the Hon. Henry Clay. Though this event has been long anticipated, yet the painful bereavement could never be fully realized. I am sure all hearts are too sad at this moment to attend to business, and I therefore respectfully suggest that your Department be closed for the remainder of the day.

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,

MILLARD FILLMORE.

*Addressed to the heads of the several Executive Departments.

M P-VOL V-II

General Jos. G. TOTTEN.

WASHINGTON, September 13, 1852.

SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 11th instant and to say that I shall be pleased if you will cause the necessary surveys, projects, and estimates for determining the best means of affording the cities of Washington and Georgetown an unfailing and abundant supply of good and wholesome water to be made as soon as possible. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

MILLARD FILLMORE.

[From the Daily National Intelligencer, October 26, 1852.]

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

Washington, Monday Morning, October 25, 1852.

The ACTING SECRETARY OF STATE and the SECRETARIES OF THE TREASURY, INTERIOR, WAR, NAVY, the ATTORNEY-GENERAL and

POSTMASTER-GENERAL.

GENTLEMEN: The painful intelligence received yesterday enforces upon me the sad duty of announcing to the Executive Departments the death of the Secretary of State. Daniel Webster died at Marshfield, in Massachusetts, on Sunday, the 24th of October, between 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning.

Whilst this irreparable loss brings its natural sorrow to every American heart and will be heard far beyond our borders with mournful respect wherever civilization has nurtured men who find in transcendent intellect and faithful, patriotic service a theme for praise, it will visit with still more poignant emotion his colleagues in the Administration, with whom his relations have been so intimate and so cordial.

The fame of our illustrious statesman belongs to his country, the admiration of it to the world. The record of his wisdom will inform future generations not less than its utterance has enlightened the present. He has bequeathed to posterity the richest fruits of the experience and judgment of a great mind conversant with the greatest national concerns. In these his memory will endure as long as our country shall continue to be the home and guardian of freemen.

The people will share with the Executive Departments in the common grief which bewails his departure from amongst us.

In the expression of individual regret at this afflicting event the Executive Departments of the Government will be careful to manifest every observance of honor which custom has established as appropriate to the memory of one so eminent as a public functionary and so distinguished as a citizen.

The Acting Secretary of State will communicate this sad intelligence to the diplomatic corps near this Government and, through our ministers abroad, to foreign governments.

The members of the Cabinet are requested, as a further testimony of respect for the deceased, to wear the usual badges of mourning for thirty days.

I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant,

MILLARD FILLMORE.

THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE.

WASHINGTON, December 6, 1852.

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

The brief space which has elapsed since the close of your last session has been marked by no extraordinary political event. The quadrennial election of Chief Magistrate has passed off with less than the usual excitement. However individuals and parties may have been disappointed in the result, it is, nevertheless, a subject of national congratulation that the choice has been effected by the independent suffrages of a free people, undisturbed by those influences which in other countries have too often affected the purity of popular elections.

Our grateful thanks are due to an all-merciful Providence, not only for staying the pestilence which in different forms has desolated some of our cities, but for crowning the labors of the husbandman with an abundant harvest and the nation generally with the blessings of peace and prosperity.

Within a few weeks the public mind has been deeply affected by the death of Daniel Webster, filling at his decease the office of Secretary of State. His associates in the executive government have sincerely sympathized with his family and the public generally on this mournful occasion. His commanding talents, his great political and professional eminence, his well-tried patriotism, and his long and faithful services in the most important public trusts have caused his death to be lamented throughout the country and have earned for him a lasting place in our history.

In the course of the last summer considerable anxiety was caused for a short time by an official intimation from the Government of Great Britain that orders had been given for the protection of the fisheries upon the coasts of the British Provinces in North America against the alleged encroachments of the fishing vessels of the United States and France. The shortness of this notice and the season of the year seemed to make it a matter of urgent importance. It was at first apprehended that an increased naval force had been ordered to the fishing grounds to carry into effect the British interpretation of those provisions in the convention of 1818 in reference to the true intent of which the two Governments differ. It was soon discovered that such was not the design of Great Britain,

and satisfactory explanations of the real objects of the measure have been given both here and in London.

The unadjusted difference, however, between the two Governments as to the interpretation of the first article of the convention of 1818 is still a matter of importance. American fishing vessels, within nine or ten years, have been excluded from waters to which they had free access for twenty-five years after the negotiation of the treaty. In 1845 this exclusion was relaxed so far as concerns the Bay of Fundy, but the just and liberal intention of the home Government, in compliance with what we think the true construction of the convention, to open all the other outer bays to our fishermen was abandoned in consequence of the opposition of the colonies. Notwithstanding this, the United States have, since the Bay of Fundy was reopened to our fishermen in 1845, pursued the most liberal course toward the colonial fishing interests. By the revenue law of 1846 the duties on colonial fish entering our ports were very greatly reduced, and by the warehousing act it is allowed to be entered in bond without payment of duty. In this way colonial fish has acquired the monopoly of the export trade in our market and is entering to some extent into the home consumption. These facts were among those which increased the sensibility of our fishing interest at the movement in question.

These circumstances and the incidents above alluded to have led me to think the moment favorable for a reconsideration of the entire subject of the fisheries on the coasts of the British Provinces, with a view to place them upon a more liberal footing of reciprocal privilege. A willingness to meet us in some arrangement of this kind is understood to exist on the part of Great Britain, with a desire on her part to include in one comprehensive settlement as well this subject as the commercial intercourse between the United States and the British Provinces. I have thought that, whatever arrangements may be made on these two subjects, it is expedient that they should be embraced in separate conventions. The illness and death of the late Secretary of State prevented the commencement of the contemplated negotiation. Pains have been taken to collect the information required for the details of such an arrangement. The subject is attended with considerable difficulty. If it is found practicable to come to an agreement mutually acceptable to the two parties, conventions may be concluded in the course of the present winter. The control of Congress over all the provisions of such an arrangement affecting the revenue will of course be reserved.

The affairs of Cuba formed a prominent topic in my last annual message. They remain in an uneasy condition, and a feeling of alarm and irritation on the part of the Cuban authorities appears to exist. This feeling has interfered with the regular commercial intercourse between the United States and the island and led to some acts of which we have a right to complain. But the Captain-General of Cuba is clothed with