No. 119.
Earl Granville to Lord Tenterden.
[From British Blue Book “North America,” No. 10, (1872,) p. 12.]
My Lord: 1 have received and laid before the Queen your several dispatches reporting your proceedings at Geneva, between the 14th and 28th ultimo, and I have to convey to you Her Majesty’s entire approval of the able and prudent manner in which you have acquitted yourself in the discharge of the important and delicate duties with which you were intrusted.
Her Majesty appreciates to its full extent the value of the assistance which Sir Roundell Palmer was good enough to afford, at no small personal sacrifice, in the solution of a question of such importance; and, although I shall convey directly to Sir Roundell Palmer the thanks of Her Majesty’s Government, I think it right to place on official record Her Majesty’s gracious sentiments, and you will have the goodness to furnish him with a copy of this dispatch.
I should not do justice to the feelings of Her Majesty’s Government if I did not at the same time acknowledge the conciliatory spirit shown by your American colleagues.
And, although the existence of such good feeling, on the part of the Agents of the two countries, facilitated the deliberations of the Arbitrators in dealing with the question which first engaged their attention, it is still the duty of Her Majesty’s Government to acknowledge the thoughtfulness and wisdom which caused them to adopt and act on the conclusions at which they spontaneously arrived.
I am, &c.,