John Welsh to Counsel will be good enough to inform the learned judge that application should have been made to the Marquis of Salisbury, secretary for foreign affairs, had time permitted it, January 28, 1879

Mr. Welsh to Messrs. Thomas Cooper & Co., Solicitors, &c.

Gentlemen: The accompanying notice marked A having been left at this legation with the janitor after the office was closed last evening, I shall be obliged to you to instruct counsel to be present in court to-morrow morning to inform the right, honorable the judge of the admiralty court that the ship against which the warrant has been applied for by the owners, master, and crew of the steam-tug Admiral, is the United States national ship of war Constitution, regularly commissioned by the Government of the United States, and that the Constitution at the time of the alleged salvage services was engaged in the national service of the United States for public purposes and in pursuance of a special act of Congress passed in that behalf.

You will please also instruct counsel to inform the judge that the so-called cargo consists of property of which the United States Government has, for public purposes, charged itself with the care and protection. Under these circumstances I, as the representative of the Government of the United States, cannot recognize that the high court of justice has any jurisdiction whatever in this case.

I am, respectfully yours,