WASHINGTON, _December 8, 1868_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I transmit a copy of a note of the 24th of November last addressed to
the Secretary of State by the minister of Great Britain, communicating
a decree of the district court of the United States for the southern
district of New York ordering the payment of certain sums to the
defendants in a suit against the English schooner _Sibyl_, libeled as a
prize of war. It is requisite for the fulfillment of the decree that an
appropriation of the sums specified therein should be made by Congress.
The appropriation is recommended accordingly.