giance. In reply I have to state that although reluctant even to delay a compliance with any similar request from you I am compelled by circumstances of which you may not be fully aware to postpone the release of prisoners of war from Kentucky at this juncture. This determination has been reached pursuant to the suggestion of loyal citizens of high standing in that State to which we feel bound to defer.

I have the honor to be, your excellency's very obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 7, 1861.

THORNTON K. LOTHROP, Esq.,

Assistant U. S. District Attorney, Boston, Mass.

SIR: Your letter of the 4th instant* has been received. I am directed by the President of the United States to say that there being an insurrection in the United States the President has suspended the writ of habeas corpus in the States of Massachusetts and in the waters thereof so far as it may concern the action of any military or naval officer or other persons engaged in the military service or the naval service of the Union and any civil officer of the United States. No officer therefore of the United States will obey any such writ without the absent of this Department previously obtained.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

WASHINGTON, November 7, 1861.

Honorable WILLIAM H. SEWARD, &c.

SIR: In a note which I had the honor to address to you on the 10th [6th] of last month I directed your attention to the unusual manner in which the master and crew of the British schooner Revere appeared to have been treated after the capture of their vessel by the U. S. ship Cambridge, and especially to the fact that two of the crew had been kept in irons.

It is now my duty to beg the Government of the United States to take into their serious consideration statements concerning another case of the same kind which have been brought to my notice by Rear-Admiral Sir Alexander Milne, commander-in-chief of Her Majesty's naval forces on the North American and West Indian stations. It would appear from them that on the seizure by the Cambridge of another British schooner, the Louisa Agnes, for an alleged breach of blockade, two of the crew of that vessel also were put in iron sand that the master did not meet with that considerable treatment which might have been reasonably expected.

I have the honor to inclose a copy of the admiral's dispatch on the subject and an extract+ from an affidavit of the master of the Louisa Agnes which accompanied it.

I have the honor to be, with high consideration, sir, your most obedient humble servant,

LYONS.

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* Not found.

+ Omitted.

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