No. 118.
Mr. Lowell to. Mr. Frelinghuysen.

[Telegram.]

[Mr. Lowell reports the conclusion arrived at by the British cabinet, which has been put in the form of a memorandum by Lord Granville, as follows:

The communications which have been made by Mr. Lowell as to the “suspects” in Ireland alleged to be American subjects involve principles of such importance that Her Majesty’s Government consider it better to give their views in a dispatch which I will soon address to Mr. West. In the mean time I may say to Mr. Lowell that the imprisonment of the suspects under the act of last year is not a measure of punishment, but of prevention. * * *]