Mr. Fish to Mr. Sickles
Sir: Your dispatch No. 351, of the 1st instant, has been received.
It may be premature for the Department to express an opinion in regard to the proposed new Spanish prize-code in the absence of a copy of the bill which you propose to forward hereafter, or to authorize you to protest against its application to captures off Cuba, until the bill shall become a law. The passage in the report of Mr. Beranger to which you refer seems to justify your remark in regard to the incompatibility of the application of the proposed code to captures connected with hostilities in Cuba to the claim of the Spanish government on foreign nations to regard that contest as a mere seditious movement. If, however, a proper opportunity should occur, it may not be amiss for you to refer to this subject in unofficial conversations with the minister for foreign affairs and other persons in authority.
I am, &c.,