Mr. Smythe to Mr. Gresham.

No. 16.]

Sir: Replying to your No. 7, reciting Mr. Durham’s 235, I have the honor to report that the bill was not presented to the Chamber of Deputies, and this I learn was in consequence of the same arguments presented in your dispatch. The Government realized that the law could not be enforced in reference to American citizens, and as they have similar conventions with other countries it was deemed impracticable and dropped.

I have, etc.,

Henry M. Smythe.