“The undersigned, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America, has the honour to inquire of Viscount Palmerston, her British Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, if her Majesty’s Government is inclined to remove existing restrictions on international commerce.
“Universal reciprocity, in the widest sense, is held by the American Government as the only thoroughly appropriate basis for intercourse between two great nations. The prohibition of the indirect trade has but restrained enterprise: it has done good to neither country. To abrogate it would at once set free dormant commercial wealth without injuring any one.
“Should her Majesty’s Government entertain similar views, the undersigned is prepared on the part of the American Government to propose that British ships may trade from any port of the world to any port in the United States, and be received, protected, and, in respect to charges and duties, be treated like American ships, if, reciprocally, American ships may in like manner trade from any port in the world to any port under the dominion of her British Majesty.
“The removal of commercial restrictions, while it would be of mutual advantage to the material interests of both countries, could not but give openings to still further relations of amity between them, and, by its influence on the intercourse of nations, create new guarantees for the peace of the world.
“The undersigned, &c.
(Signed) “George Bancroft.”
The following reply was given by Lord Palmerston:—
Lord Palmerston’s reply, November 17,
“Foreign Office, 17th November, 1847.
“Sir,