Reade to Granville Leveson-Gower, January 6, 1883

Mr. Reade to Lord Granville.

My Lord: I have the honor to report that, pursuant to the instructions expressed in your lordship’s telegram of the 30th ultimo, the remains of John Howard Payne were this day shipped on hoard the French steam vessel Charles Quint to the consignment of Mr. Taylor, the United States consul at Marseilles.

Owing to the impossibility of complying with some of the formalities which, under ordinary circumstances, would have been strictly enforced, in connection with the exhumation of the body, and to my communication with the United States consulate at Malta, in the hope that some ship of war of that nation might be charged with its conveyance across the Atlantic, some delay occurred in the execution of the instructions with which I was in the first instance honored by your lordship.

As stated in my telegram of the 30th ultimo, I had arranged to ship the remains two days ago, but, in order to allow of the arrival of the United States consul at Malta, who had expressed a wish to be present at their disinterment, the shipment did not take place until this morning.

I beg, in conclusion, to inclose a copy of the act executed on the occasion of the exhumation of those remains, and of my dispatch to the United States consul at Marseilles, announcing their shipment to his address.

I have, &c.,