(Translation.)

SHARON SPRINGS, August 30, 1862.

The Honorable Mr. SEWARD,

Secretary of State of the United States of America, &c.:

SIR: I have had the honor to receive your letter, dated Washington, 20th of this month, * relative to the seizure made and the consulate of the Netherlands in New Orleans and to the report on this subject which has been made by the Honorable Revery Johnson., i have likewise had the honor to receive the extant from the report which was annexed to your letter. I shall hasten to transmit the two documents to His Excellency the Minister of Foregoing Affairs of the King, with request to furnish me with the necessary instruction, in order that I may fully answer the letter which you have just done me the honor to address to me. Meanwhile I will myself of the power which you have been pleased to confer on me of selecting the person to whom will be delivered the sum of $800,000 in silver by indicating the person under whose charge that sum was found; that is to say, Mr. Amedee Couturie.

As to what concerns that other articles seized I have not been able to find, either in the report of the Honorable Revery Johnson or in the correspondence exchanged between him and Mr. Cuturie, the slightest trace of any refusal by the latter to receive back the various boxes seized. I have, however, perceived that there was a disagreement between them as to the opening of in if the boxes and as to the delivery of the eighteen bonds of the cities of New Orleans andave also perceived that, very far from refusing to receive all the boxes which are mentioned in the 'statement" of the consul dated the 13th of May, he asked them back in their entirety in his letter of the 24th of July, addressed to Mr. Recerdy Johnson. I have, moreover, not found in all the correspondence which has been communicated to me any want of respect shown by Mr. couturie toward the authorities of the United States, although he may have differed from them as to the way of understanding his duties. For instance, the Honorable Revery Johnson seems to have thought that i's duty to go in quest of or to send for that which had been improperly seized at his house. I cannot, any more than the consul, share this opinion. In my judgment, the least that could be done after an unwarranted seizure was to have the articles which had been seized sent back to the place in which they had been found.

After receiving your letter of the 5th of June, and finding in it an allusion to a denial of the deposit and to a refusal of information on the part of the time of appearance of the military authority of the United States in the consulate of the Netherlands, I questioned Mr. Couturie in this regard by letter of the 9th of June (which he only received in duplicate on the 26th of July). He answered me that he had not at all refused to give information, and he sent me a note supplementary to his 'statement of facts" -a note which I have the honor to transmit to your herewith. However, I must leave entirely to the King's Government to judge of the conduct of the consul.

In my opinion, all question between organs or agents of different governments ought to be discussed with the most perfect carefully avoid. I therefore request you, sir, to be pleased to believe that the word "outrage" which appears to have displaced you in my

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* See p. 503.

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