ing which I have been considering occurred some time ago and that the part of it which was most calculated to offend and to which exception is more especially taken finds no support in the communication of Earl Russell.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

London, November 22, 1861.

Honorable WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

SIR: I have to acknowledge the reception of the missing dispatch of the 23rd of October from the Department, which relates as I had conjectured to the case of Mr. Bunch, the British consul at Charleston. In conformity with the instructions therein contained I have addressed a note to Lord Russell on the subject, a copy of which I have the honor to transmit herewith.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

[Inclosure.]

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

London, November 21, 1861.

Right Honorable Earl RUSSELL, &C.

MY LORD: The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States, has the honor to inform the Right Honorable Earl Russell, Her Majesty's principal secretary of state for foreign affairs, that he has now just received the answer of his Government to the note addressed by his lordship to the undersigned on the 9th of September last touching certain epresentations made by him under instructions from his Government of the conduct of Mr. Robert Bunch, Her Majesty's consul at Charleston, and he now proceeds to submit the substance of the same to his lordship's consideration.

And first it is a source of satisfaction to the undersigned to be able to say that the President finds that part of Mr. Bunch's proceedings which was most calculated to offend the United States and to which exception was more especially taken has no support in the communication of his lordship to which it is now proposed to reply. If it be true that Mr. Bunch made any assurances direct or implied to the insurgents in the United States of a disposiiton on the part of Her Majesty's Government to recognize them as a State it is now clear that he acted utterly without authority. Whatever is the responsibility which may be supposed to attach to Mr. Bunch for such an act there is no disposition left to assign the smat to the source to which he is indebted for his official position.

But though there is great cause for gratification in this view of his lordship's note the undersigned is constrained to admit that in another the President has received it with somewhat less satisfaction. It would appear that Her Majesty's Government has avowed that Mr. Bunch did act under instructions so far as his conduct was known to the foreign department and that action went to the extent of communicating to the persons exercising authority in the so-called Confederate States the desire of Her Majesty's Government that the second, third, and