No. 1530.] Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have to acknowledge the reception of dispatches from the department, numbered 2119, and from 2121 to 2124, inclusive; also three copies of the United States Statutes at Large, passed at the first session of the 40th Congress. With respect to the subject matter of No. 2123, of the 20th of January, I have the honor to report that in a conversation with Lord Stanley, held some time since, I introduced the question which had been committed to me in your dispatch No. 2097, of the 23d of November, and remarked to his lordship that the government, feeling a friendly interest in the government of Nicaragua, had wished me to offer to render any services that might be in my power to smooth away difficulties that might have arisen here. His lordship replied that the government had no wish to do anything to embarrass the government of Nicaragua. Their object had been to secure justice to all parties, as well the people of the Mosquito territory as the Nicaraguans; and after consultations with the minister who had been sent here, he believed that the result arrived at had been regarded as perfectly satisfactory. I said, in reply, that I had presumed this to be the case, as I had heard nothing more of the minister after the first interchange of civilities between us. It had so happened that, though repeated calls had been reciprocated, we had never been so fortunate as to meet each other face to face. But it was well understood between us that my services could be commanded in case of need. Hence the omission to apply for them had led me to the conclusion that all the objects in view had been attained without the need of them. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. No. 1531.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I received, on the 30th ultimo, a letter from Mr. Eastman announcing to me the fact that a person by the name of Michael McKeen had been arrested at Queenstown "on suspicion of evil purposes," and that he had claimed his protection as a naturalized citizen of the United States. Mr. Eastman reported that he had at once made the usual application to the authorities at Dublin for his release. It would appear from the consul's statement that Mr. McKeen had no papers whatever in his possession to prove his naturalization, and that Mr. Eastman proceeded solely on his belief of the truth of the account which he personally gave to him. In his application Mr. Eastman, therefore, could describe him only as "claiming to be a citizen," &c. The result was, in due course, an order from Dublin for the discharge of Mr. McKeen. He was accordingly released on the 30th ultimo. This is one of many cases in which there seems a necessity that parties liable to be stopped at Queenstown should be provided with some sort of evidence of their status; especially such persons as are natives of Ireland. It might be expedient that, in order at least to avoid the inconvenient delay required to obtain evidence, their own comfort would be consulted by some warning given at home of the propriety of being provided before starting from America with such reasonable proofs of their status as citizens as might be obtained by them with little trouble. Such a precaution would materially increase the confidence in prompt intervention on the part of the officers who have the matters specially in charge here. Meanwhile, I fully bear in mind the fact that this has been heretofore made the subject of representation to the government here. As it is impossible to be sure of the time in which action may be come to here in the matter, and some personal inconvenience might be avoided in the interval I have taken the liberty to make the present suggestion. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. No. 1535.] Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor to transmit a copy of a letter addressed to me by R. OS. Burke, the individual now under confinement and about to take his trial on a charge of treason-felony. I am led to do this not so much on account of its intrinsic importance as from a wish to place on record, among all the cases in which it has been my duty to labor in behalf of persons similarly situated, this single instance of grateful acknowledgment. In this connection I may as well call your attention to the delay to reply to my dispatch No. 1495, of the 14th December last, in relation to the case of Colonel Nagle. His solicitor, Mr. Scallan, has become very anxious, and has applied to me to know what is to be done in the absence of directions. I have caused him to be informed that I consider my existing authority to extend only to the employment of counsel in Nagle's defense in the customary way. So far as that goes I am willing to exercise it. But so great is the expense already incurred even in that way, that I could only justify acceeding to the extra measures which he desires under special instructions from the department authorizing the outlay. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, SIR: I regret to learn through my solicitor, Mr. Merriman, that you have resigned your representative office at the Euglish court, and are about to return to the United States. I desire, before your departure from London, to express to you my thanks for the prompt and satisfactory consideration you have bestowed upon my case; and further, to tender to yourself, Mr. Moran, secretary of legation, and Mr. Morse, consul at London, my gratitude for the unvarying kindness and courtesy with which myself and solicitors have been received during my connection with the legation. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Hon. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, United States Minister, &c., &c., &c. RICARD OS. BURKE. Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. No. 1538.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: Parliament reassembled yesterday according to the adjournment. Many notices of motions were made, the only one relating to America being that of Mr. G. Shaw Lefevre, relative to the negotiation on the Alabama claims. The health of the Earl of Derby has become so precarious that an impression has got abroad of the probability of his retirement at an early day. A leader in the Times of this week seemed to point in that direction. But so great are the difficulties in the way of the selection of a successor, that this step will be resorted to only under a sense of absolute necessity. Much as the absence of the premier in the House of Lords is felt from the want of any person of his party adequately to fill his place, the attempt to go on in spite of this disadvantage will be persevered in as long as possible, rather than to hazard a reconstruction in this stage of a transient parliament, with a dissolution full in view at the close of the present session. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, SIR: I inclose for your information an extract of a dispatch from Mr. Bancroft, our minister at Berlin, dated 23d January, and a copy of my reply thereto of the 13th instant, No. 41, upon the subject of the naturalization laws existing between the United States and the governments of Great Britain and Prussia, respectively. R: Your letter No. 33, of January 6th, has been received. Count Bismarck informs that the British government has inquired of him as to the answer the Prussian gov ernment would make to the American government on the subject of naturalization. In reply he informs them of the intention of this government to come to an understanding with that of America, according to its request. The remarks of Count Bismarck implied that the British government is inclined to follow the example of the Purssian, and that the settlement of the question here will be virtually a settlement for Great Britain. In the prosecution of this business to a settlement there is need of great patience, as the several departments interested in the measure have to be consulted and to propose their difficulties and desired modifications. Some time must therefore pass away before the negotiations can be closed. SIR: Your dispatch of the 23d of January, No. 33, has been received. I thank you for your attention manifested in informing me what has passed between the governments of Great Britian and Prussia concerning the question on the naturalization laws existing between the United States and those two governments respectively. I have informally suggested to the British minister here that a proceeding in a form of mutual or common legislation in the two countries would be more simple and probably easier than formal negotiations, inasmuch as there are so many other questions which urgently require settlement between the United States and Great Britain besides that of the conflicting naturalization laws. Perhaps it would be well for you to speak in the same sense to the British ambassador at Berlin. Is counsel, special or otherwise, employed for Nagle, and how? Tele graph. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c. Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. [Telegram per cable.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Usual counsel engaged. No reply yet to dispatch 14th December. Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. No. 1539.J LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: On Saturday last, the 15th instant, I had a favorable opportunity of meeting Lord Stanley and of communicating to him the substance of your dispatch No. 2118, of the 13th of January. The chief portions of it I gave to him in your own words, especially the closing paragraph, precluding any inference that the suggestion that preceded was to be considered a proposal to reopen a negotiation. His lordship said that his desire, as I must know, had always been so strong to arrive at some terms of agreement with us, that if he could see a way to it he should not stand upon ceremony in the order of initiating it. With respect to one of the subjects referred to in the dispatch, that of allegiance, he believed the feeling was universal in England that some change of the law was necessary to meet the change of circumstances. If there were inconvenience to us likely to spring from it on this side, it was not less true that equal inconvenience might result in certain cases to them on the other. Some had actually been experienced during the late war. In the instructions that had been given to Mr. Thornton, the new minister, he had included a proposal, in a friendly spirit, to engage in any consultation that might have for its object the arrangement of all existing difficulties on this head. I said I was very glad to learn this; for just at the present moment there was a more pressing need of removing uneasiness on this score than on any other. We then went into some general conversation upon the difficulties in the way of a definite settlement of this right of expatriation among the great nations of the world, in the course of which his lordship started the idea of some commission of eminent legal representatives of the four powers most interested in the question to devise and recommend some common system for all. I expressed my own willingness to favor this notion, and the more that our difficulties were even more serious with Germany on this subject than with England. Passing from this, however, his lordship expressed his doubts whether it would be found more easy to come to an understanding by accumulating all the different topics recited in your dispatch in one heap than by treating each separately. The term "conference," too, was so general that he could not yet quite affix a practical measure to it. He should be very glad to learn more fully what idea it was intended to convey. I said that I would, if he pleased, communicate this wish to you, it being understood that thereby no implication could be raised adverse to the observance of the precautionary final paragraph in your dispatch. His lordship assented to this reserve. So it was understood between |