Lord Lyons to Mr. Seward.
Sir: On the day before yesterday I had the honor to call your special attention to the execution of bonds on a cargo shipped for Jamaica, on board the British brig Leonard Berry, by Messrs. H. de Cordova & Co., of New York. Yesterday I addressed a note to you expressing the strong conviction which her Majesty’s government entertain of the injury which has been and still is being done by the vexatious restrictions imposed by the United States government on the trade between New York and her Majesty’s possessions; and I informed you that I was instructed by her Majesty’s government to omit no endeavor to obtain from the government of the United States redress for the grievances of which these restrictions are the cause.
It appears that the system of exacting bonds on shipments to British colonies against which her Majesty’s government have so often remonstrated is not only maintained, but is constantly extended. The enclosed copy of a letter from Messrs. A. H. Solomon to her Majesty’s consul at New York will bring to your notice another instance in which bonds have been exacted on a cargo shipped to Jamaica. It would appear, indeed, that the collector of customs at New York has announced that he will not permit the brig Perilla, respecting which Mr. Solomon writes, nor any other vessel bound for Jamaica, to proceed to sea unless the master provides bonds for double the amount of the value of the cargo, signed by persons owning real property in the city of New York.
I may observe that you did me the honor to state to me in a note which you addressed to me on the 17th March last, that in making the penalty of his bonds double the amount of the shipment the collector was believed to have exceeded the requirements of the act of Congress, and that he had been so informed. He appears, however, still to continue the practice. The requirement, also, that the bonds shall be given by persons holding real property in the city of New York seems to add to the difficulty of procuring them, and to be very vexatious. Indeed, her Majesty’s consul informs me that the exaction of bonds such as those insisted upon by the collector will practically effect a destruction of the regular and legitimate trade between New York and Jamaica.
The practice of enforcing bonds having for their object to govern and regulate, not the immediate, but the possible future and contingent disposition of articles of commerce, is, as you are aware, regarded by her Majesty’s government as a violation of the treaty obligations of the United States to Great Britain; and they will learn with very great regret that it has now been extended to shipments to yet another British colony, and, moreover, enforced in a very stringent and vexatious manner. I trust that you will, at least, enable me to inform them that some measures have been at once taken to mitigate the evil in the special cases brought forward in the present note, and in that which I had the honor to address to you the day before yesterday.
I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.