On the 27th of October last Her Majesty’s representative at this capital, under instructions from Lord Derby, informed this Government that Her Majesty’s Government would be prepared, as a temporary measure, until a new extradition treaty can be concluded, to put in force all powers vested in it for the surrender of accused persons to the Government of the United States under the treaty of 1842, without asking for any engagement as to such persons not being tried in the United States for other than the offenses for which extradition had been demanded.

I was happy to greet this announcement as the removal of the obstacles which had arrested the execution of the extradition treaty between the two countries.

In reply to the note of Her Majesty’s representative, after referring to the applications heretofore made by the United States for the surrender of the fugitives referred to in the correspondence which was laid before Congress at its last session, it was stated that on an indication of readiness to surrender these persons an agent would be authorized to receive them, and I would be ready to respond to requisitions which may be made on the part of Her Majesty’s Government under the tenth article of the treaty of 1842, which I would then regard as in full force until such time as either Government shall avail itself of the right to terminate it provided by the eleventh article, or until a more comprehensive arrangement can be reached between the two Governments in regard to the extradition of criminals—­an object to which the attention of this Government would gladly be given, with an earnest desire for a mutually satisfactory result.

A copy of the correspondence between Her Majesty’s representative at this capital and the Secretary of State on the subject is transmitted herewith.

It is with great satisfaction that I have now to announce that Her Majesty’s Government, while expressing its desire not to be understood to recede from the interpretation which in its previous correspondence it has put upon the treaty, but having regard to the prospect of a new treaty and the power possessed by either party of spontaneously denouncing the old one, caused the rearrest on the 4th instant of Brent, one of the fugitives who had been previously discharged, and, after awaiting the requisite time within which the fugitive is entitled to appeal or to apply for his discharge, on the 21st instant surrendered him to the agent appointed on behalf of this Government to receive and to convey him to the United States.

Her Majesty’s Government has expressed an earnest desire to rearrest and to deliver up Winslow and Gray, the other fugitives who had been arrested and committed on the requisition of the United States, but were released because of the refusal of the United States to give the assurances and stipulations then required by Great Britain.  These persons, however, are believed to have escaped from British jurisdiction; a diligent search has failed to discover them.