wrote as follows:

SENOR DON ALMIRANTE VIZCARRO, _Commanding Squadron off New York_.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge your communication of this
date, sent per flag-of-truce, in which you demand--

1st.--That immediate surrender to the force under your command be
made of the fortifications of this harbor, together with the Navy
Yard at Brooklyn, and all munitions of war here existing.

2nd.--That the cities of New York, Brooklyn and Jersey City do
cause to be paid, on board of your flag-ship, within three days
after the said surrender, the sum of fifty millions of dollars in
gold, or in the paper currency of England or France.

And in which you announce that non-acquiescence in the foregoing
will be followed by the bombardment of the said fortifications, the
Navy Yard and the arsenals in New York City, by your squadron,
after the lapse of twenty-four hours from noon this day.

In reply, I have to state that these demands are peremptorily
refused and I have most solemnly to protest against so gross a
violation of the laws of civilized warfare, as is indicated in your
intention to attack a city within a period too short to enable the
non-combatants to be safely removed.

I have the honor to be, etc.,

WINFIELD S. HANCOCK,

_Major-General Commanding_.

This reply was telegraphed to New York, and Mr. Pierrepont Edwards, Her
Britannic Majesty's Consul-General, was one of the first to receive it.
He acted with the usual force and promptness with which British
interests and the lives of British subjects are protected by British
officials abroad. That is to say, he first telegraphed to the British
Minister at Washington, Mr. West, requesting, that the three great
ironclads, "Devastation," "Orion" and "Agamemnon," all of which were
then in Hampton Roads, be at once sent to New York. Then he prepared a
formal protest against the proposed action of the Spanish Admiral, which
all the other foreign consuls at once signed, and which was delivered
aboard the Spanish flag-ship by a boat bearing the British flag before
three o'clock that afternoon.

The Spanish admiral took the protest into consideration to the extent of
granting forty-eight hours' time. The consuls protested again at this as
not being sufficient, and demanded five clear days. The admiral refused
to grant more than three; but when, before the three days had expired,
the trio of English war-ships made their ap