New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1852-02-21
DAILY CRESCENT
The Promethus Affair.

The Washington papers of the 18th contain
the correspondence between the United States
Government and that of Great Britain relative
to the attack on the Promethus. We give the
last letter OIL Lord dranyille to Mr.: Lawrence
FOREIGN OFFICE, Jan 10, 1852.
The undersigned, her Britannia Naiestv-e
Secretary Of State for Foreign Affairs, has the
honor to acquaint Mr.. Abbott Lawrence. Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiar ary froI,
the United States of America, that her Majesty
Government have just received from the Vice
Admiral, commanding her Majesty's Naval
Forces in the West Indies, report upon the
subject Of the Promethus," which is to the fol-
lowing effect: That. on arriving al Sc. Thomas's
the Admiral received a dispatch from the COM
mander of her Majesty's sloop ssExpress,'' stat
ing that, on the requisition of Mr. Green, her
MaJesty's Consul at Greytown, who is also
principal officer of the Mosquito Government at
that place, he had by force compelled the Ameri-
can steamship s' Promethus'' to pay the port
dues demanded of her by the authorities of Grey
town.
To this dispatch Vice Admiral Sir George sey-
NOR shad Immediately replied, by saying that
neither he, nor to his knowledge her Maiesty's
CONSUL, had received any orders to allow her
MaJesty,s ships to be employed in such a service
or IN enforcing the fiscal regulations of Mos
quito; the sole object Of the presence of British
ships-of-war at Greytown being to defend the
town and inhabitants from aggressive attempts
to deprive the Mosquito Government of possess
sion' pending settlement by negotiation of the
question relative to its future position. Sir
George Seymor had further expressly forbidden
the commander of the ss Express from again
employing force to compel the levy of duties for
the Mosquito Government
The undersigned has now to state to Mr.. Alb
bott Lawrence, for the information of his Gov
ernment, that her Majesty's Government fully
approve of the Vice Admiral's conduct in this
matter; and that they entirely disavow the acts
of violence committed by the commander of the
Express, and also the requisition from her Ma
Jesty's Consul, under which the commander
acted, so far as he acted by any authority de-
rived from the British Crown
Under these circumstances, her Majesty's
Government have no hesitation in Offering an
ample apology for that which they consider to
have been an infraction of treaty engagements :;
and her Majesty's Government do so, without
loss of time, and Immediately upon the receipt of
the official intelligence above alluded to, mas
much as in their opinion it would be unworthy
of the Government of great nation to hesitate
about making due reparation when the acts of
their subordinate authorities had been such as
not to admit of their Justification As her Ma
jesty's Government have full confidence that the
Government of the United States is actuated by
similar feeling, they hope that this mutual
confidence will induce each nation to refer at
once to each other in all cases of such disputes
| and, until due time has elapsed for the neoes-
sary explanations to be received to defer taking
any steps which might lead to collisions, and
thus much aggravate the original difficulty
The undersigned requests Mr. Abbott Law
renee to accept the assurances of his highest
consideration GRANVILLE.
Abbott Lawrence, Esq, etc, etc.