Lord John Russell to Queen Victoria

WAR IN AMERICA

Foreign Office, 30th May 1861.

Lord John Russell presents his humble duty to your Majesty; he has the honour to submit letters from the Emperor and Empress of Austria of a private nature. The Cabinet decided yesterday that the ports of your Majesty's Dominions ought to be closed to the ships of war and privateers of the Belligerents in America. A letter for that object has been sent to the Law Officers of the Crown, and will be, when put into proper form, submitted for your Majesty's approbation.

Footnote 14: See Introductory Note, ante, p. 421.