§ MR. CRAWFORDsaid, before the House went into Committee he wished to put a question to the noble Lord the Secretary for Foreign Affairs on the subject referred to by the hon. Member for Galway (Mr. Gregory). It had been stated in the city that day that several vessels had arrived from the Southern ports of the States of America with letters of marque, and inasmuch as a considerable amount of the property of British subjects was carried in American vessels, and inasmuch as the Government of the United States had not acknowledged the principle in the Treaty agreed to by the European Powers at Paris, that neutral goods should not be liable to confiscation by the belligerents, he wished to ask the noble Lord, Whether any representations had been addressed to the American Government upon the subject, and whether the noble Lord had taken any steps to protect the property of unoffending British subjects which might be embarked on board the vessels of the United States, and subject to seizure by those vessels of the Southern States which carried letters of marque?