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Date: 1864-06-06
By: Lord Lyons
Citation: Despatch from Lord Lyons to Earl Russell (6 June 1864) in Journal of the Legislative Council of the Province of New Brunswick (1865).
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Washington, 6th June, 1864.

My LORD,—With reference to Your Lordship’s Despatch No. 173, of the 14th April last, to my Despatch No. 267, of the 19th of the same month, and to the previous correspondence concerning the restrictions imposed by the United States Government on the Trade between New York and several British Colonies, I have the honor to transmit to Your Lordship copies of further papers relating to that subject.

Your Lordship will perceive that these instructions have now been extended to Jamaica, and that Bonds have been exacted on shipments from New York to that Colony. I have addressed two notes to Mr. Seward, remonstrating against the extension of the system to Jamaica, and I have moreover in a note founded on the Despatch from Your Lordship to which I have referred, expressed afresh to M1r. Seward the opinion of Her Majesty’s Government that these vexatious proceedings constitute a violation of the Treaty obligations of the United States to Great Britain, and are in fact and in truth an unjustifiable extension of the belligerent right of blockade which has been, and still is, strained to the utmost during the present War.

My representations appear to have had the effect of causing Bonds of a less vexatious character than those originally demanded, to be accepted in the recent cases of shipments to Jamaica; but no hope has been hitherto held out to me that the general system will be abandoned.

I have, &c. (Signed) LYONS.