enormous sum of 12 millions sterling :That the neutrality of America, so far from being injurious to the other commercial interests of Great Britain, has promoted materially their prosperity :-That the produce of our colonies in the West Indies, of our empire in the East, and of our fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland, has frequently found a foreign market by this means; and -That by the destruction of the neutrality of the only remaining neutral state, all possibility of intercourse with the rest of the world being removed, trade cannot possibly be benefited, but must necessarily be annihilated. Your petitioners feeling as they do most sensibly with their fellow subjects, the pressure of a war in which their commerce has principally been aimed at by the enemy, would scorn to plead their distress in recommendation of measures inconsistent with the honour and substantial interests of their country; but they humbly rely upon the wisdom of the legislature that this distress shall not be increased by our own errors, and they confidently believe, that, if they are permitted to illustrate by evidence the facts they are here to state, and to explain many others which they shall here refrain from enumerating, they cannot fail to establish the conviction with which they are so strongly impressed ;-That the orders of council are founded on the most mistaken opinions of the commercial interests of the empire, and must be particularly fatal to those of your petitioners.Your petitioners therefore pray, that they may be heard by themselves or council at the bar of this hon. house, and be permitted to produce evidence in support of the allegations of their petition; or that this hon. house will examine into the nature and extent of their grievances in any mode which may appear advisable, with a view of affording such relief as this hon. house in its wisdom may think proper. And your petitioners will ever pray.

CLAIMANTS ON AMERICA.

SIR,An aspersion upon the character of the merchants having Claims under the Convention with America, which appeared in the Morning Post of the 11th of Feb. in the Report of a Speech which that paper has given as the Speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, renders it necessary that the public should be undeceived, and which I shall attempt, as well as endeavour to do justice to myself, in common with my brother claimants, notwithstanding my increased age and, infirmities, since I last addressed some observations to you on the subject of the Board of

Claims on American Debtors (Vol. X. p. 149, 297). I am doubtful whether to attribute this reported Speech to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, or to the errors of the reporter, but which soever it may be, the tendency of the passage I shall notice is a fit subject for reprehension, whether we consider the charge against the Board of Commissioners, or the false statement respecting the conduct of the merchants.-The observations to which I refer, as reported in the Morning Post of the 11th of Feb, arose out of the subject of the arrangement with the Bank, and are as follows: " But the Com"mittee was in error in including in this "£475,000 part of £600,000 placed in "the Bank, in virtue of an arrangement "with the United States of America.

Though the claimants on this fund may

not have been as prompt in coming for"ward with demands as before, it was in "the power of the trustees to vest the money "in Exchequer Bills, for the benefit of the "claimants, whenever they should come "forward."-It will be necessary, Mr. Cobbett, that I trace the origin of the Claim we have, not upon the Board of Commissioners alone, but upon the nation, to repel this attack upon our want of promptitude, and that, I therefore travel to the commencement of the revolutionary war with America. It is not my intention to swell my present letter beyond the limits actually necessary in the recital of our wrongs in the communication of the unprecedented treatment we have received, by far worse than that extended to very outcasts of society. I shall briefly touch upon our situation from the year 1775 to the peace in 1783, and as briefly state the sufferings we have undergone from 1783 to the present time. At the time of the commencement of the war in 1775, the American colonies stood indebted to the British merchants £4,000,000 ster ling and upwards, which were withheld from them during the war, and which it was expected would not be readily discharged upon the cessation of hostilities, and the consequent peace. This conclusion is evident from the stipulatfon the administration of this country in 1783, when the treaty of peace was agitated, deemed it proper to insist upon, and which was adopted, viz. the 4th article in these words, "It is agreed "that creditors on either side, shall meet "with no lawful impediment to the reco"very of the full value in sterling money, "of all bona fide debts heretofore contract"ed;" and which not only included debts due at the commencement of hostilities in 1775, but also those which had been incur

red up to the day on which the treaty of peace was made. The right upon our part to insist upon the Americans paying those debts which certain laws of the respective local legislatures of each state in which individuals stood indebted to Britain, interdicted during one period of the war, was acknowledged, and our privilege to sue for recovery of our demands was considered to be revived, and not a doubt remained among the principal part of my brother merchants, but that justice would be impartially, regularly, and without delay administered to us; so much were they impressed with this idea, that the committee of merchants in London, created for the purpose of superintending the interests of their constituents trading to America, expressed their extreme satisfaction at the stipulated provisions of the fourth article of the treaty of peace; but hastily and rashly, indeed publicly declared their full conviction, that the American courts of judicature would instantly dispense even handed justice to the British creditors. That men inured to difficulties, wants, and deprivations, and accustomed to the frequent exercise of evasions and subterfuges, as the American debtors had submitted to during 8 years miseries of war, would instantlychange their acquired habits to pursue the path of honour and honesty, was, I think, rather more than could be believed by the most credulous of the committee. This committee, however, expressed their conviction of the future correct proceedings of the American debtors, and in which sentiment they were joined by the Glasgow merchants, who went even further in their expressions of satisfaction at the stipulations of the 4th article of the treaty of peace, and, their belief of the correct proceedings which would take place under it in the American courts, and declared that every thing has been procured for them which could have been expected, when all circumstances are dispassionately considered;" and even one of our legislators suffered himself to be equally deceived into a similar belief with his constituents; I mean the Lord Advocate, who in the debates upon the provisional articles of the treaty of peace, after adopting their sentiments with consi derable stage effect, drew a letter from bis pocket, when on the floor of the House of Commons, (I was present at the time) and observed, "I have a letter from the merchants of Glasgow, requesting me to return thanks to ministers for the care they have taken of their interests in the negotiation, for that some had been paid, some secured, and some were in hopes of being paid the debts due by America to them." Sir, not a

single attempt was ventured upon by the legislature or judiciary of America, or the local government of the respective states, to carry into effect the stipulations of the 4th article of the treaty of peace, for several years after the peace; nor were the doors of the courts of law opened to the reception of cases of claims on the part of British creditors, in pursuance of the provisions of that article, although the Lord Advocate declared the communication from his constituents to be highly favourable. Yet, I know, and I am sure, that the merchants of Glasgow had reason to agree with me soon after his declaration, that the debts paid "were merely balances of a few shillings, and even that those were only paid for the purpose of decoying the merchants into ill placed confidence of their minutely exact conduct, and to induce them to ship fresh cargoes of goods, impressed as they would be with the scrupulous exactness of their old debtors, as well as that the "securities" taken were of no more avail than the original debts, because whatever cbjections there might be to the accounts current, would follow the bond, and it is going too far to contend, that the mere act of giving a bond is of equal importance with the actual payment of a debt; although I know full well that such doctrine has been always the creed of American debtors, who when pressed by their British crediters for payment, invariably have observed, "I will pay you with my bond," and deem the payment of the debt to be made from the moment the bond is given. This sort of payment, however, is not of the nature that would pass current upon the Exchange of London, to enforce which would take just as much time as would the original debt, unaccompanied with the solemnity of wax and printed paper, and still liable to every objection that might be made to the accounts' current, for the balance of which the bond might have been taken. In one part alone of the Lord Advocate's observations I agree, for not only did some of the Glasgow merchants hope that the Americans would be made to pay their debts, but, I believe, nearly the whole of us; the events which occurred, however, put an end to all expectations, whatever our wishes might have been.During the war a law was passed in America, compelling British creditors, factors, and agents to leave the colonies of America, and innumerable other impediments were also created, to prevent a British creditor from recovering his debts. One particularly in 1777, sequestering British property, and which impediments were at length completed by the total interdiction

a court erected by the new or federal government, as a check upon the state courts; but many of us dreading the great expences attendant upon proceedings in that court, sought, but fruitlessly, for redress in the district or county of the different states; but in which judgments were not obtained until between 2 and 3 years afterwards, avoiding certainly the expences of the federal court, but adding to the great expence of time which we had cruelly been subjected to.But, Mr. Cobbett, when the courts gave us judgments, they deducted 8 years interest during the war-a very considerable portion of our demand, and when it was proved that a debt had been paid into the American treasuries in their paper money manufacture, which did not exist when the debt was created, and consequently, not morally binding upon us, it was held to be a satisfaction of our demands, although it never came into our hands, nor was worth one penny to us in any way whatever.-Such a fulfilment of the 4th article of the treaty of peace, entrenched as the American debtors were with innumerable impediments, Mr. Cobbett, as you must see, and no doubt of your own acquired knowledge of our situation are aware, was a derision and mockery. Remonstrances upon remonstrances were made to our own government, to administer relief to us in some shape or other, to keep us from a state of actual want, or to enable us by some strong representation to the American government, to seek redress with some prospect of success, which went on from time to time until towards the end of the year 1794, when the treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, was entered into, and by which it was agreed that commis sioners should be appointed to carry into effect the stipulations of the 4th article of the treaty of peace, and the American government agreed to become our paymasters.-It is not necessary for me here to state minutely what was done, or rather, what was not done under this commission, for like unto our individual applications, the national authority had as little effect as our endeavours towards a settlement, because I have in my former letter (Vol. X. p. 149 and 297) to you, furnished you with a sufficient statement of the case; it is only necessary for me to observe, that nothing whatever conducing to our individual benefit or interest, was settled, and that we were still condemned to groan ander our miseries, to suffer additional delay, and to bear increased expences, while the written proofs we had of the origin of our bonâ fide claims were mouldering away with corroding time, and our living

witnesses descending into the vale of life, thus accumulating upon us additional difficulties, instead of clearing our direct path.Our claims were now calculated to be in amount upwards of £5,000,000 sterling, the whole of which, every shilling, if established by proof, and which we could have proved incontrovertibly at the peace, when the whole was guaranteed to us (notwithstanding the respect I bear to the opinion of my deceased legal friend, whose sentiments I have already mentioned) was stipulated to be secure to us by the 4th article of the treaty of peace, from the individual debtors, but not carried into effect; and by the 6th article of the treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, adopted and assumed by the American government, and which was also not carried into execution. I cannot penetrate into the arcana of state, but, no doubt, for wise and prudential political reasons, we the merchants were doomed to be sacrificed, or what is tantamount, our interests were to be surrendered to maintain the peace of the nation; and this sum of £5,000,000 sterling, was to be compounded for by payments on the part of the American government of £600,000 sterling. I find no fault with this negociation and settlement, if our situation as a nation was such as to require the concession and individual sacrifice; but it must be clear to every man totally unacquainted with state maxims, and the policy of government, that it is a moral axiom the nation is bound to indemnify individuals whose interests may be sacrificed for the general good, out of the public purse; that all shall contribute where all are concerned and benefited; which may be brought familiarly to our view, by reflecting that if it be deemed necessary the public should have a road through my land, although I as an individual do set a value upon the spot on which I may have been born, and which in value increased in my estimation with my ripen ing years; yet this sacrifice must be made by me, and hard as it might be to part with it, it would be only just and proper that I should so do for general benefit. Just indeed it is on the part of the nation requiring it for the public advantage, not a particle of injustice is there in the required act, the only injustice which could arise would be in the determination of government not to compensate me for the deprivation; but government never yet did take from the indivi dual a foot of land, and add it to the common stock, without awarding compensation for the deprivation. If, therefore, the government deemed it politic and prudent to compound £5,000,000 of den ands for

£600,000, I hold that government bound to make up the deficiency to the individuals, and to take every precaution that no time be uselessly expended in apportioning the scanty pittance paid by the American government among the hungry claimants. A period of 8 years had elapsed from the date of the treaty of amity, commerce, and navi gation 19 years after the peace, and 27 years from the commencement of the war, when a convention was entered into between Britain and America, viz. on 8th Jan. 1802, by Lord Hawkesbury, his Majesty's principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, on the part of the former, and by Mr. Rufus King, the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States on the part of the latter country, by which it was stipulated that the United States should pay £600,000 sterling in 3 installments, in satisfaction and discharge of the money which the United States might have been liable to pay in pursuance of the provisions of the treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, and which amounted to 25,000,000, as I have already mentioned. The last instalment of this money was paid in 1805, and for the purpose of distributing the amount, commissioners were appointed by act of parliament in pursuance of a bill brought into the House of Commous by the present Chancellor of the Exchequer, at the timme Attorney General, the beginning of April, 1803, which directed the sum of L600,000 to be divided amongst the several persons in proportion to the amount of their respective claims; and which was, in fact, no more than 12 per cent. of the amount of the whole, viz. £5.000,000, amounting, as I have stated to you in my former communication, to no more than 2s. 41d. in the pound of every 20s. of "the full value of all bonâ fide debts," as the words of the treaty of peace are. Although the bill was brought into parliament until the beginning of April, 1903, an office was opened for the reception of claims in September, 1802; and when the Board of Commissioners appointed in the act met, they continued to receive claims until the limited time, by the 7th section of the act of parliament for finally depositing claims, which was fixed for the 1st of June, 1804, after which period no claim could be received. It is, therefore, incorrect to state, as the Morning Post has stated, that the claimants have not been so prompt in coming forward with demands as before; because, if a creditor neglected to make his claim on or prior to the 1st of June

not

ca,

1804, his claims could not be subsequently received. The reverse of the charge of want of promptitude would have been nearer the truth, for a great many creditors were prompt enough to come forward to make claim before the Convention Board, seeing that the British government had compounded for the debt due to the British merchants, and precluded them from resorting either to the American government, or the American individual debtor, who had not from some cause or other made claim with the Board in America, under the treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation; but their claims were refused to be received before the Convention Board, because they had not in the first instance made claim in America, under the treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation. We who made our claims in An rihave all made our claims to the Convention Board years since, with that prompti tude our immediate wants and necessite compelled us to do, and we have followed up this promptitude from the time the Board was formed, unceasingly but unavailingly, to the present time, writhing under the torture of accumulating expence, delays, and impediments to remuneration; and, I cannot even now, Mr. Cobbett, as I observed formerly to you, calculate upon the final decision of the Board upon our respective claims, within less time than I have heretofore stated, long before which period we shall, and indeed will the whole of mankind in present existence, have ceased all concern in sublunary matters: Singula de nobis anni prædantur euntes. A reflection much embittered by the innumerable sufferings and hardships and privations we have undergone, during the last 30 years, and those we have still to submit to. Insignificant as is the sum compounded for, it would have been some little relief to the horrors of our reflection, if that composition money had been rendered productive, until the Board could bring themselves to the resolution of putting some little stay to our miseries by deciding our claims; but this, Sir, has not been done. The Morning Post is equally incorrect in the assertion, in the respect that "it was in the power of the trustees to vest the money in Exchequer Bills for the benefit of the claimants, wherever they should come forward," as the fact is, that such proceeding has not been adopted. This observation is a severe censure upon the Board for neglecting and sacrificing the interest of the claimants, if they are empowered to lay out the money

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