In a letter to the British consul, of the same day’s date, the commander informed him that he regretted that the consul did not feel at liberty to disclose the authority upon which he had acted in denouncing the American brigantine Louisa Beaton, for it had been with the hope that he would in a measure be able to relieve himself of an act of interference in a matter in which he, the consul, had no concern, that chiefly induced the commander to address him. As, however, he had failed to assign any reason for that act of interference with a vessel belonging to the United States, it had become a duty to apprise him that the government of the United States would not permit an officer of any other government to interfere, officially or otherwise, with any vessel entitled to wear their flag; and that he had to suggest to the consul, that hereafter, should he have any cause to suspect any such vessel sailing in violation of a municipal law of the United States, he would content himself by giving information of the fact to some officer or agent of the United States: that such officer or agent would at all times be found near his residence. The commander further stated that he might then, with propriety, dismiss the subject, but that justice to the owners of the Louisa Beaton required him further to state, that the consul’s information, come from what source it might, of the Louisa Beaton’s being engaged in the slave-trade, was not entitled to any credit. And in reference to “the character and former proceedings of that vessel,” the commander would inform him, that the British officer commanding the southern division of Her Majesty’s squadron had disavowed to him, in September, eighteen hundred and fifty, the act of boarding and detaining the said brigantine Louisa Beaton by another British cruiser; and also had proposed a pecuniary remuneration for the satisfaction of the master of the said vessel; in reference to which the commander declined any agency, deeming it rather to be his duty to report the matter, which was accordingly done, to the government of the United States. And further, that in the month of June, eighteen hundred and fifty-one, he had himself examined the Louisa Beaton, at the island of St. Helena, and that at the date of his communication to the governor-general affecting her character, she was a legal trader.