William H. Seward to J. HUME Burnley, February 19, 1865

Mr. Seward to Mr. Burnley

Sir: Referring to the correspondence which has taken place between us in regard to the suspicious steamer Georgian or Georgiana, I have the honor to acquaint you, for the information of the proper authorities of her Majesty’s government, that in a despatch of the 6th instant, addressed to me by D. Thurston, esq., the consul of the United States at Toronto, it is stated that the steamer Georgian has been transferred to George Taylor Denison, a major in the militia (cavalry) of Canada; that he professes to have paid thirteen thousand dollars for her; but Mr. Thurston states that no such sum has ever been in the major’s possession, and that he understands that George Dawson, a Canadian by birth, and a colonel in the insurgent service, who spent some months in Toronto, and who avowed that he was there as the agent of the insurgents, and for a special object, left that city a few days before it was known that the vessel had passed into George T. Denison’s hands; that Dawson has a family connexion with Denison, and was very intimately associated with him during his residence in that city.

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your obedient servant,