RENNELL, Harbor-Master to F. P. Knight, October 4, 1874

Mr. Rennell to Mr. Knight.

Sir: In answer to the concluding paragraph of your dispatch No. 272, of the 3d instant, I need hardly assure you that no want of courtesy or due regard to your appellate jurisdiction was intended or implied in my previous communication, (No. 18.) My meaning is, I think, sufficiently obvious. I am in duty bound to act in the manner set forth, i. e., to refer my action, through the medium of my superior officer, to the inspector-general of customs.

In the present case I proceed on the presumption that you will not do otherwise than uphold me in the exercise of the discretionary power I possess. I have, of course, no desire to leave my own clear path to trench on the ex-territorial rights of foreign officials, and I certainly cannot give an opinion as to how far those rights extend.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,