[Inclosure Numbers 2.]

WASHINGTON, December 27, 1861.

Honorable WILLIAM H. SEWARD, &c.

SIR: I have this morning received the note which did me the honor to address to me yesterday in answer to Earl Russell's dispatch of the 30th of November last relative to the removal of Mr. Mason, Mr. Slidell, Mr. Macfarland and Mr. Eustis from the British mail packet Trent.

I will without any loss of time forward to Herr Majesty's Government a copy of the important communication which you have made to me.

I will also without delay do myself the honor to confer with you personally on the arrangements to be made for delivering the four gentlemen to me in order that they may be again placed under the protection of the British flag.

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

LYONS.

WASHINGTON, December 27, 1861.

(Received January 6, 1862.)

[Earl RUSSELL, London.]

MY LORD: * * * Before transmitting to me the note of which a copy is inclosed in my immediately proceding dispatch of to-day's date Mr. Seward sent for me to come to the State Department and said with some emotion that he thought it was due to the great kindness and consideration which I had manifested throughout in dealing with the affair of the Trent that he should tell me with his own lips that he had been able to effect a satisfactory settlement of it. He had, however, now been authorized to address to me a note which would be satisfactory to Her Majesty's Government.

In answer to inquiries from me Mr. Seward said that of course he understood Her Majesty's Government [willing] to leave it open to the Government of Washington to present the case in the form which would be most acceptable to the American people, but that the note was intended to be and was a compliance with the terms proposed by Her Majesty's Government. He would add that the friendly spirit and the discretion which I had manifest in the whole matter from the day on which the inteligence of the seizure reached Washington up to the present moment had more than anything else constributed to the satisfactory settlement of the question.

I asked Mr. Seward what arrangements he would wish me to take for receiving the prisoners. He begged me to speak to him on the subject to-morrow for he was at the moment overwhelmed with business and particularly with the labor of preparing dispatched for the European mail.

I have, &c.,

LYONS.

ADMIRALTY, [London,] December 27, 1861.

(Received 28th.)

[Mr. HAMMOND.]

SIR: I am commanded by my loords commissioners of the admiralty to transmit herewith for the information of Earl Russell a copy of the