No. 126.
General Schenck to Mr. Fish.
London, March 6, 1873.
Sir: The receipt of your No. 329, correcting the error of Mr. Gladstone in his statement made in Parliament, that the expression of regret by Great Britain contained in the Treaty of Washington “was not in the nature of a condition precedent,” has already been acknowledged.
You say that, without a desire to provoke any discussion, it may be well to place in the archives of this legation some facts in connection with the question. And I do not understand that you deem it necessary to have me bring your dispatch on the subject, at present, to the notice of Her Majesty’s Government. But I cannot forbear, before filing it away, to express to you my great satisfaction that you have thus made authentic record of the facts on this point which preceded the negotiation of the Treaty.
Although not needed as confirmatory evidence, I venture to set down also my testimony on the subject.
Being at Washington, holding my appointment as Minister to Great Britain, but instructed by the President not to proceed to my post, but to remain and await the issue of the unofficial preliminary negotiations between you and Sir John Bose, because in case of agreement between [Page 588] the two Governments to create a Joint Commission I was to be nominated one of the Commissioners on the part of the United States, I had the honor to be confidentially informed and consulted during the preparatory steps. I well remember that, from the beginning, you required official assurance that the British Government would make expression of regret for what had taken place in regard to the Alabama and other cruisers, declining to pass the preliminary notes with Sir Edward Thornton until this, among other things, was distinctly under stood.
I am, &c.,