Hammond to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary)

With reference to the Letters from the Colonial Office
of the 12th of October and 23rd of December last,
relative to the right of Navigation of the Columbia River
below the 49th Parallel, after the expiration of the
exclusive rights of the Hudson's Bay Company, I am directed
by The Earl of Malmesbury to transmit to you, to be laid
before Secretary Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, the Draft of
a Despatch which His Lordship proposes to address to Lord
Napier in reply to his Despatch on this subject, No. 190
of the 30th of July last, a Copy of which was enclosed
in my Letter to you of the 18th of August last; and I
am to request that you will move Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton to
acquaint Lord Malmesbury whether he concurs in the Draft.