WASHINGTON, _January 26, 1869_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I transmit for the consideration of Congress, in conformity with the
requirements of the sixth section of the act of the 22d of June, 1860,
a copy of certain regulations for the consular courts in China,
prohibiting steamers sailing under the flag of the United States from
using or passing through the Straw Shoe Channel on the river Yangtse,
decreed by S. Wells Williams, chargé d'affaires, on the 1st of June, and
promulgated by George F. Seward, consul-general at Shanghai, on the 25th
of July, 1868, with the assent of five of the United States consuls in
China, G.H. Colton Salter dissenting. His objections to the regulations
are set forth in the accompanying copy of a communication of the 10th of
October last, inclosed in Consul-General Seward's dispatch of the 14th
of the game month to the Secretary of State, a copy of which is also
transmitted.