FOREIGN OFFICE, [London,] January 11, 1862.

[Lord LYONS, Washington.]

MY LORD: In transmitting to your lordship my preceding dispatch of yesterday's date I have to state that I read a copy of it this day to Mr. Adams. When I had done Mr. Adams said that he considered it as a dispatch which would be very satisfactory to his Government.

I said that the paragraph in the dispatch was meat as a reference to the case of the Eugenia Smith which seemed to be as similar as possible to that of the Trent. I concluded that in that case the prisoners would be at once liberated, a conlucion in which Mr. Adams seemed to agree, but he declared that he knew nothing of the case except from the newspapers.

I spoke to him of the report that a number of Federal cruires were coming to the British Channel and I expressed a hope that interruption of British trade would as afar as possible be avoided. Mr. Adams explained that according to rumor a complete squadron of Confederate vessels were about to cruise in the British Channel. The Nahsville, the Sumter and the Pacific were to form a part of this squadron. He had been informed that both at Liverpool and at Havre many merchant vessels of the United States were detained-afraid to put to sea in the face of the expected squadron. The object of his Government was therefore to protect their own trade and not to harass ours.

I said I expected that such would be his answer.

I alluded to the case of the men landed in Southampton and found in the docks being part of the crew of the Tuscarora. He told me that he had warned the captain of the Tuscarora with regard to any use of force on the land of a neutral. I then informed him that the captain of the Tuscarora had received notice in respect to the rule that a belligerent leaving a neutral port should not be pursed by the belligerent vessel of the opposite power till after the expiration of twenty-four hours.

(I inclose a correspondence with the Board of Amiralty and Mr. Adams on this subject. *)

I then stated that I thought in might be useful to both Governments if several points in regard to neutrality raised by Mr. Seward's dispatch were to be calmly discussed between us. Some passages in Mr. Seward's dispatch might lead to the inference that almost every packet passing between Dover and Calais might be liable to be taken and carried into New York on the pretext that it carried some emissary of the secessionists. But such I was convinced was not the meaning of Mr. Seward.

I sincerely congratulated him on the termination of this affair, and said that if Mr. Hume was right in saying that the reparation of injustice is the second honor of a nation that honor undoubtedly belonged to the Government of the United States.

I am, &c.,

RUSSELL.

FOREIGN OFFICE, [London,] January 11, 1862.

[Lord LYONS, Washington.]

MY LORD: Your conduct in this important matter of the Trent is entirely approved by Her Majesty. The discretion and the good temper you have shown have contributed greatly to the success of our representation.

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* Omitted as irrelevant.

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