we were enabled for the first time to commence suits against our debtors, and to recover as we apprehended, as the 4th article of. the treaty of peace provided, "the full ya "lue of all bonâ fide debts." I remember well when the article was first publicly declared, asking the opinion of a very worthy man, and a rara ayis, an honest lawyer, now no more, what were his sentiments upon the tendency of the expression. Well I recollect his reply, which the event has proved to be correct, that it did not secure to us the payment of 20s. for every pound of our demand, that the full value of all bonâ fide debts, "did not mean" all bonâ fide debts. in full," but that it only guaranteed to us the full value of all bona fide debts" at the time we were enabled to get from the debtors as much as they might deem it exIn other words, the ac of recovery, actually proscribing us, and declaring it to be an act of treason for any American debtor to pay his British creditor, but enabling the American debtor to discharge the responsibility of debt, by payments with their manufacture of paper money into the state treasuries, which in the year 1781 had depreciated so low as 1000 for 1, and as their estimated value of the new currency, was deemed to be equal with sterling amount in the payments into those treasuries; consequently, £1000 currency of the actual value of sterling, discharged a bonâ fide sterling debt of £1000. -It is scarcely of any importance to notice the Suspension Act, respecting payments in paper money in the year 1780, because the act was renewed with renewed vigour in 1782, and no benefits whatever arose to the British creditor from the suspended pay-pedient to pay us. ments, as they were unable to prosecute the debtors. The hopes of the constituents of the Lord Advocate were not fulfilled, when the olive branch was substituted for the spear, Although the treaty of peace stipulated for the payment of debts, British creditors were not permitted to sue their American debtors, it being deemed unfair, according to the doctrine of the Americans, to allow them to obtain judgment, while the American creditors had any outstanding demands against their fellow citizens. This doctrine was adopted and persevered in un-ty to others to evade the effect of judgment til the year 1791; for, although the legislature repealed the act prohibiting the reco very of British debts in 1787, it was in fact, a virtual continuation of the prohibition, for it was also declared in the same act, that a suspension should continue until the posts were given up to the Americans, (Detroit upon their western frontiers, was one of the posts) and until the negroes who under a proclamation by the British commander, had deserted their servitude, and flocked to our standard, were restored, or compensation was made for the loss sustained by the Americans in consequence of their dereliction; thus did impediments expressly contrary to the provisions of the 4th article of the treaty of peace, against the recovery of British debts, remain in full force; we could not sue our debtors until some time after the adoption of the constitution of the American government under its present form, and which alteration took place I believe in 1788. After the expiration of nearly three years from this period, 8 years after the peace, and 16 years from the commencement of hostilities, viz: in 1791, and after the American creditors had recovered their demands from their fellow-citizen debtors, tual value of our debts was that which we against them), after 8 years consideration. whether they would or would not pay us, and after 8 years adoption of all the chicanery that could be devised by American lawyers, to prevent the recovery of a single shilling in due course of law, and loading us with the incalculable expences of protracted litigation. With all these and innumerable other difficulties, these innumerable difficulties did we, in addition to the miseries we had experienced from the cruel detention of our property, while our creditors here were clamorous for payment of their demands, which we were utterly unable to discharge, many of us forced into the prisons of the metropolis, to which we had formerly contributed our mite to support in the sunshine of our days, and compelled to take re-.. fuge with our families, in the midst of mig. serable objects and disease. multiply to, our severe and bitter lot, by seeking redress in the American courts of law, and by adding expence to the first loss from the rapacity of agents and lawyers. In 1791 we sued our claims in the American courts, and it was in 1793 and not before, a period of 10 years from the treaty of peace, when the first judginent was obtained in the federal court, 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 manufac ture, 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 commissioners 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 under 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 ripening 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 individual 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 navigation 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 £5,000,000, 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 Commons by the present Chancellor of the Exchequer, at the time Attorney General, the beginning of April, 1803, which directed the sum of £500,000 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. 44d. 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 pot brought into parliament until the beginning of April, 1803, an office was opened for the reception of claims in September, 1802; and when the Board of Commissioners ap pointed 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 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 debts 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 Bora 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 America, have all made our claims to the Convention Board years since, with that promptitude our immediate wants and necessities compelled us to do, and we have followed up this promptitude from the time the Board was formed, unceasingly but unavaningly, 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 nolis 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 re fiection, 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 Supplement to No. 12, Vol, XIII-Price 10d. Р at interest, or upon the legislature, for not having attended to their interest in authorising such investment, particularly so, as the person who is reported by the Morning Post to have made the observation, is the very person who brought the bill into parliament. That the board are not to blame for the money remaining wrapped up in a napkin, as I have heretofore mentioned, I shall make appear perfectly clear. The eleventh section of the act of parliament, which was passed on the 22d of April, 1803, enacts that the three several installments of £200,000 "shall, as soon after the payment thereof respectively in America, as the same can be done, be remitted to, and paid into the hands of the cashier of the governor and company of the Bank of England, to the account of, and with the privity, and in the names of, the commissioners appointed under this act, and shall be and remain in the names of the commissioners for the time being under this act, to be paid to the several and respective persons entitled thereto under the order of the said commissioners, or any two of them, pursuant to the provisions of this act." Not one word of authority is delegated to the board to invest the money in Exchequer Bills or otherwise, for the benefit of the concern throughout the act; and, consequently, this money might remain in the bank until doomsday, if it could be possible that a board armed with the powers they have by this act, could, in the exercise and in the plenitude of those powers, refrain from. deciding upon the cases before them. I will not, as the Morning Post has done, charge the board with acting improperly, in attributing to them power which they are not armed with, or with an improper exercise of the authority they have delegated to them; because, I Irave been assured that the present commis sioners are men of character and ability, qualified in every respect for their arduous duties, and are not insensible to the situation their starving petitioners are, and have been for many years placed in, and are disposed to extend to each claimant his individual share of justice; but, I may without impropriety suppose in the present state of mankind, that it is not impossible others not of equal character and ability, and to whom the harsh treatment we have experienced, and the rigourous measures we have endured may not be known or attended to, [may in less time than a century be placed in their stations; and that while those men may be fattening upon the otium cum dignitate, some trivial imperfection or other in our respective cases may be held to be of sufficient importance to delay a decision upon them be yond the period of the present century. This may be the case, and of this I do complain as of an event not improbable, as I am informed not one of the present board has youth on his side. Still, however, it might be some consolation for a man of my age and infirmities, to reflect that my great grandson's great grandson might be the better remunerated for my present miserable expectations, if I knew that the money paid into the Bank was laid out in Exchequer Bills, and consequently, accumulating in amount, the simple interest of which in the course of a century, taking the amount as it is now stated to be £475,000, would produce £2,375,000 in the aggregate £2,850.000, though very far short of our claims, still it would be some addition to our confined hopes; but, as it would be a further conso. lation to know that the greater the resulting benefits accruing, the larger would be our rateable proportion. I have to suggest the adoption of the same rule which is pursued in the City of London, where we mercantile men do not in our practical proceedings content ourselves with a calculation of simple interest profits. Certainly not, for as we receive our money we send it out again into the world, and as this is strictly correct and attended with the reflection that we can calculate upon the advantage of compound in terest, which in the time I have mentioned would amount to a very considerable sum, the overplus in the prescht case, after paying our descendants of the sixth generation handsomely, might be made subservient to the general purposes of the nation. But how can the attempt to put this into practice be made? Where rests the power to make even simple interest of this composition money, Mr. Cobbett, for the act of parliament authorises no such thing; and it seems there. fore, necessary that a new act be passed for the express purpose. The present board have some limits to what they shall not do, though from a very minute examination of the act, I cannot discover any rule of con duct positively restricting them to what they shall beneficially do. Let the obloquy remain where it should, in the administration that agreed to sacrifice us for £600,000 and having sacrificed us for that sum, still further added to it by not attending to the be nefits which would arise, and in some measure compensate us for the first sacrifice, by directing that scanty pittance to be placed out at interest until the sixth generation of commissioners to meet upon our cases might deem it proper to decide them. The present board, Sir, have no more interest in the application of the monies than you have; they are the mere tunnel as it were, through which our silvery flood of dollars is to drip into our hands, when it has been purified at the smelting house; for, I consider every day's delay as operating to exude out of us 82. 38. 104. simple interest during every 24 hours, the principal sum remaining as a dead and unprofitable concern in the Bank of England cashier's hands, under the act of parliament, totally unemployed. Mr. Cobbett, the good hard dollars hourly losing the polish, such at least is to be collected from the act of parliament, was the intention of the legislature. The board though armed as they are with some very great powers, are notwithstanding not armed with powers for cur prospective interest; this however, is not their fault, but the crime of those who originally sacrificed us; and the Morning Post must, therefore, be incorrect, in attributing the expressions it has done to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to the very man who prepared the bill, and moved it in the house, and who must have known how an act of parliament operates, expressly declaring that the money shall remain with the cashier of the Bank, until paid over to the claimants; but, though our individual interest has been neglected, yet, surely, it would have been well that the legislature had not wholly overlooked that which concerns the national interest. If our prospective interest was beneath their notice, that of the nation is presumed not to be so. Why not have directed that the annual interest of tire £600,000 should be appropriated to the current expences of the office of the board. The et cæteras of public offices are not introduced into the national establishment without expence, and £30,000, the yearly interest of the £000,000, would have at least contributed to the discharge of claims upon government for the expence of the office, instead of becoming a permanent charge upon our taxes, as I much fear it will, for the end of the concern is far removed for any definite period. We have now entered into the seventh year of the existence of the American claim office, few claims have been decided, and small indeed has been the rateable pittance which has been doled out to a very few of us, after a patient endurance of sufferings for 33 years, and no Prospect whatever presents itself of a final cessation of our miseries, unless the faint spark of life remaining in us should expire, and with that event put an end to all reflection upon our cares. In my former correspondence, I observed, that much appeared to be done, before we received the scanty portion of our sacrifice, notwithstanding was gravely assured by one of your corre) spondents, that all the leading points were decided upon by the Board in Philadelphia, and that it was now only necessary to apply those points to the different cases, and decide upon them. Mr. Cobbett, 7 years have nearly elapsed, and comparatively speaking, we have gained not a shadow of our rights, and for what we have gained we have been compelled to submit iu the first instance to the acceptance of 2s. 44. in the pound composition, when even government acknowledges that twenty shillings is our due, because policy required the state to offer us, the mercantile part of the nation, as an expiatory sacrifice for having dared to demand the fulfilment of the 4th article of the treaty of peace by the Americans. I should hope that government will ultimately see the propriety of making up the difference to us, which I hold it to be bound to do on the principles of common justice, as it was deemed adviseable to concede our property to America without our consent, and to take from us our right to sue our debtors, which we were enabled to do before the convention, or to look to the government of America for redress, if justice was withheld from us by the American judiciary.-Men may flippantly talk of concessions to America, but let every one bring the matter home to his own breast. It is easy to contend for the concession of the rights of others; but, I should wish much to know, if those men who at this time strenuously and vociferously advocate the cause of concessions to America by this nation, are willing themselves to concede what may immediately effect their individual interests. What is the concern of every one is the concern of no one; and we may, therefore, concede as a nation all our just rights, without a direct sacrifice being made of the interest of the individual; this is what those men contend for, but who. would vehemently oppose a surrender of their individual interests, though the nation should require it to be done in the manner we have submitted to the surrender. But whatever is yielded to America, whatever concession may be determined upon by this country, I am fully satisfied it will only be considered by America as arising from apprehension; and that America emboldened by our wavering conduct, will never desert her system of extorting concession as long as this country has any thing left to concede.I have ever found such to be the conduct of individuals of that country; and, I have no doubt, that the collective body retains the virtues of the component parts. My présent letter has branched out into greater space |