extradition.

It is with great satisfaction that I am able now to announce to Congress
and to the country that by the voluntary act of Her Majesty's Government
the obstacles which had been interposed to the execution of the
extradition article of the treaty have been removed.

On the 27th of October last Her Majesty's representative at this
capital, under instructions from Lord Derby, informed this Government
that Her Majesty's Government would be prepared, as a temporary measure,
until a new extradition treaty can be concluded, to put in force all
powers vested in it for the surrender of accused persons to the
Government of the United States under the treaty of 1842, without asking
for any engagement as to such persons not being tried in the United
States for other than the offenses for which extradition had been
demanded.

I was happy to greet this announcement as the removal of the obstacles
which had arrested the execution of the extradition treaty between the
two countries.

In reply to the note of Her Majesty's representative, after referring to
the applications heretofore made by the United States for the surrender
of the fugitives referred to in the correspondence which was laid before
Congress at its last session, it was stated that on an indication of
readiness to surrender these persons an agent would be authorized to
receive them, and I would be ready to respond to requisitions which may
be made on the part of Her Majesty's Government under the tenth article
of the treaty of 1842, which I would then regard as in full force until
such time as either Government shall avail itself of the right to
terminate it provided by the eleventh article, or until a more
comprehensive arrangement can be reached between the two Governments in
regard to the extradition of criminals--an object to which the attention
of this Government would gladly be given, with an earnest desire for a
mutually satisfactory result.

A copy of the correspondence between Her Majesty's representative at
this capital and the Secretary of State on the subject is transmitted
herewith.

It is with great satisfaction that I have now to announce that Her
Majesty's Government, while expressing its desire not to be understood
to recede from the interpretation which in its previous correspondence
it has put upon the treaty, but having regard to the prospect of
a new treaty and the power possessed by either party of spontaneously
denouncing the ol