Mr. Seward to Mr. Van Valkenburgh.
Sir: Your dispatch of the 13th of August, No. 80, has been received. You inform me that an English steamer from Hiogo appeared on the 27th of July at Yokohama with sixty or more Choshin officers and men on board, and with the object of procuring possession of the Stonewall by order of the Mikado. You inform me further that the Choshin men promptly returned to Hiogo without making any new application to yourself.
I have read with much interest the papers which accompany your dispatch. A portion of them discloses a very interesting fact, viz., that an expectation is still indulged by a considerable part of the Japanese people that all foreigners can and will ultimately be expelled from Japan. Whether this expectation will be converted and adopted into a partisan or even national policy must depend largely upon the accidents of the civil war, which are beyond foreign control, and more, perhaps, upon the sagacity and prudence of the treaty powers themselves. I trust you will not fail to keep me advised by indications of popular sensibility on that subject.
Appended to the dispatch other papers make it clear that the party which was specially identified with the government of the late Tycoon possessed a large share of the material resources and political experience of the country, and that that party, although confounded and temporarily bewildered, is probably capable of reorganizing a vigorous retaliation. I am, sir, your obedient servant,
R. B. Van Valkenburgh, Esq., &c., &c., &c.