a and the Ottoman Porte, giving certain
judicial powers to ministers and consuls of the United States in those
countries," might obviate the necessity of any other legislation upon
the subject.

JAMES BUCHANAN.

EXECUTIVE OFFICE,

_Washington, December 15, 1858_.

Hon. JAMES L. ORR,

_Speaker of the House of Representatives_.

SIR: In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
the 13th instant, requesting the President of the United States, if not
inconsistent with the public interest, "to communicate all information
in his possession, or which may shortly come into his possession,
respecting the reported recent acts of visitation by officers of the
British navy of American vessels in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico,"
I transmit the accompanying reports from the Secretaries of State and
the Navy. The report from the Secretary of State is not in strictness
embraced by the terms of the resolution, but I deem it advisable to
communicate to the House the information therein contained.

JAMES BUCHANAN.

WASHINGTON, _December 20, 1858_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying
documents, in answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 7th of
January last, calling for all the official dispatches and correspondence
of the Hon. Robert M. McLane and of the Hon. Peter Parker, late
commissioners of the United States in China, with the Department of
State.

JAMES BUCHANAN.

WASHINGTON, _December 20, 1858_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

The Senate will learn from the thirty-five naval nominations herewith
submitted the result of my investigations under the resolutions of
Congress of March 10 and May 11, 1858. In compliance with these
resolutions, I have carefully examined the records of the courts of
inquiry in fifty-eight cases, and have arrived at the conclusion that
twenty-three of the officers ought to remain in the positions where
they have been fixed by the courts of inquiry.

The records are very voluminous and the labor of examination, in which
I have been materially assisted by the Secretary of the Navy, the
Attorney-General, and the Commissioner of Patents, has consumed much
time.

Under the act of January 17, 1857, the courts of inquiry were directed
to investigate "the physical, mental, professional, and moral fitness"
of each officer who applied to them for relief. These investigations it