No. 152.

Mr. Bancroft to Mr. Fish,

No. 119.]

Sir: Yesterday at the foreign office I was requested to authorize Mr. Washburne at Paris to employ such assistants as he might need to meet the additional labor imposed upon him by the protection of the Germans in France. This government is ready and desirous to discharge the expense that may ensue, but I beg leave to suggest (what indeed I know beforehand to be your wish, and what I should not mention but for my being the channel of communication) that it may best suit our dignity to defray ourselves the trifling increase in expense in the French legation.

GEO. BANCROFT.