This, therefore, if the occasion should arise, you will require; and any other precautions, such as the postponement of the election until a certain time shall have elapsed after the withdrawal of General Rosas' force, and until notice shall have been given to the citizens of Monte Video who may be beyond the precincts of the Republic, you will propose according to your judgment of the necessities of the case. What I have here said with respect to General Oribe applies equally to General Rivera; for though Her Majesty's Government would regret the return of the latter to Monte Video at the present moment, as likely to add to the difficulties which have to be met, both there and at Buenos Ayres, yet they could not, without departing from the impartiality of mediators, propose the exclusion of one from the rights of citizenship enjoyed by the other. You will use your discretion in making the views of Her Majesty's Government, as above stated, generally known. When a contest is essentially one of party, it is of course difficult to divest intervention of all party character, and Her Majesty's Government have reason to suppose that the object of Great Britain and France has been misrepresented and misunderstood in more quarters than one. In your despatch of the 17th of August, you state that it suits General Rosas' present purpose to avoid the appearance of being opposed to the English and French Governments, and that he represents their operations as solely directed against General Oribe and his party in the Oriental State. On the other hand, Her Majesty's Government are aware that the Monte Videans, who are in the service or under the influence of General Oribe, having at first been taught that the interference of the 2 Powers was in favour of their leader, were subsequently, upon the adoption of coercive measures, persuaded that the mediation was, in fact, an interested foreign aggression, which their duty and their honour called upon them to resist. And Her Majesty's Government also know, that a party in the town of Monte Video have endeavoured to create the belief that the mediation is entirely in favour of its present Government, and that England and France are prepared to enter into a close alliance with them. This being the case, Her Majesty's Government will be glad to hear that you have taken every fitting opportunity to place the policy of the 2 countries in its true light; to disclaim on the part of their Governments any interested motives, as well as any preference for one or other of the parties into which the State of the Uruguay is divided: and to convince both those parties that the measures of coercion to which we have had recourse are directed solely against the interference of a foreign Power in a question purely national, and one which cannot be decided by foreign arms without violence to the independ ence of their country; an independence which Great Britain and France are virtually bound to uphold. G. Ouseley, Esq. I am, &c. ABERDEEN. CORRESPONDENCE respecting British Commercial Privileges in Spain.-1814-1845.* No. 1.-Mr. Bulwer to the Earl of Aberdeen.-(Received July 10.) (Extract.) Barcelona, June 29, 1844. My attention has some time since been called to the circumstance of different duties being imposed on French vessels in certain Spanish ports (for the rule has not been perfectly general as far as I can make out), from those imposed on other vessels, and I demanded reports from our Consuls on this subject. From these reports (they have unfortunately been left at Madrid, and are not yet complete) it would appear that there is a difference in the light duties paid by France and other Powers; and this difference is stated by some of our Consuls to exist in consequence of Treaties. I was aware of no Treaties in force which could give France peculiar privileges of this kind, but as I expected to see the different Consuls myself, during my present absence from Madrid, and to make further inquiries on the subject, I deferred communicating with your Lordship thereupon until I was in full possession of all connected with the affair. M. de Viluma said to me," the question is more important than it appears; the duties are small; it is perfectly true that our vessels are similarly favoured in French ports, and on this ground I shall probably accede to the French demand, but I cannot and will not do so on account of the Treaty they invoke, which is the Family Pact." I told M. de Viluma that the family Treaty he alluded to was no longer in force, and that a promise had been given that it should not be re-established. The Earl of Aberdeen, K.T. SIR, H. L. BULWER, No. 2.-The Earl of Aberdeen to Mr. Bulwer. Foreign Office, July 17, 1844. HER Majesty's Government have had under their consideration your despatch of the 29th ultimo. Her Majesty's Government cannot readily believe that any claim. which the French Ambassador may have thought it his duty to address to the Spanish Government in behalf of French commerce, can have had no better foundation than the supposed existence at this day of a * Presented to Parliament, 1945. family compact between the Crowns of Spain and France. If, however, such has been the case, the pretension has been most properly met by M. Viluma; and should it at any future time be renewed, and an opportunity be offered to you of making known the views of Her Majesty's Government upon it, you will state that they entirely concur in the opinion expressed by the Spanish Minister, that the engagement in question is cancelled. Whether the ground upon which M. Viluma appears to support this opinion is the soundest it is not necessary to inquire. Events of a date much anterior to the change which has taken place in the dynasty of France have long ago put an end to the Treaty of 1761;* and those events having been followed by a solemn engagement on the part of Spain to Great Britain, in the Separate Article of the Treaty signed at Madrid on the 5th July, 1814,† not again to enter into a Treaty of the same nature, Her Majesty's Government need look for no further arguments to justify them in protesting against any appeal to the provisions of that compact, from whichever side such appeal may proceed. With respect to the privileges to French vessels, which form the subject of Count Bresson's claim, as well as the ground on which M. Viluma seems disposed to concede them, Her Majesty's Government reserve their opinion until they shall have been made acquainted by you with the precise nature and extent of the privileges in question. &c. H. L. Bulwer, Esq. I am, ABERDEEN. No. 3.-Mr. Bulwer to the Earl of Aberdeen.-(Received July 30.) HAVING observed in the answers to certain queries addressed to Her Majesty's Consuls in Spain, that French vessels paid less port charges than British and other foreign shipping, I mentioned the subject verbally to the Marquis de Viluma (as reported in my despatch of 29th ultimo), who seemed to consider that the privilege was claimed in virtue of the ancient family compact between Spain and France, on which ground he said he should resist the pretension, though on the more simple one that Spain enjoyed a similar privilege in France, he should admit it. I thought it better at all events to address a note on the subject to his successor, the copy of which I herewith inclose. It has not yet been answered; but I have obtained a copy of the royal order on which the above difference is specially founded, a copy and translation of which I likewise transmit. I have no doubt therefore that the reason contained in this order for the French privileges, will be the one assigned to me by the * Vol. I. Page 276. + Vol. I. Page 275. Spanish Government; and your Lordship will therefore have the goodness to inform me as to whether you deem that it can justly be pleaded against the right of British vessels to be placed on the footing of those of the most favoured nations in Spanish ports. The Earl of Aberdeen, K.T. I have, &c. H. L. BULWER. P.S., July 23.-I inclose copy and translation of the answer which I have received from General Narvaez since writing the above. SIR, (Inclosure 1.)-Mr. Bulwer to General Narvaez. Barcelona, July 12, 1844. It is a long time since I bave been informed by Her Majesty's Consuls that French vessels are in possession of certain privileges in Spanish ports which are contrary to the Treaties by which it is stipulated, that England will always be treated in Spain on the same footing as the most favoured nations. For instance, at Malaga, French vessels are only charged with one-half of the port charges which are paid by the vessels of other foreign nations. At San Lucar French vessels pay only 12 maravedis per ton for light duty, when British vessels are charged 24 maravedis per ton; a difference, indeed, which I understand is pretty general throughout Spain; while at this port of Barcelona I have been assured that French vessels are exempted from the charge of 2 pesetas per ton for the improvement of the port, which are still exacted from British vessels, who since the 1st of January last up to the 7th July, have paid no less a sum than 3,337 dollars on such account. I request your Excellency to inform me whether these particulars are true, as I have every reason to believe, and in that case may I beg you to inform me of the cause of a distinction which appears so contrary to the Treaties, and also to the alliance and friendship existing between the 2 countries. I avail, &c. General Narvaez. (Translation.) H. L. BULWER. (Inclosure 2.)-Royal Order. Madrid, May 23, 1817. (Circular.) THE following Royal Order has been communicated to us by the Finance Department, under date of the 10th instant: "The King having been informed that Spanish vessels pay in France the same navigation duties which are paid by French vessels, has been pleased to determine that French vessels in Spain shall pay no more than what is paid by Spanish ones, for which purpose His Majesty has been pleased to revoke the Order of May 19, 1816, by which it was directed that 20 reals should be exacted for each ton from French vessels. I communicate this to you by Royal Order for its fulfilment." The Administrator-General of Customs SIR, of Malaga. God, &c. JUAN QUINTANA. (Inclosure 3.)-General Narvaez to Mr. Bulwer. (Translation.) Barcelona, July 19, 1844. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 12th instant, relative to the advantages which you state are enjoyed in the ports of Spain by French vessels, which are not made extensive to those of your nation. I beg to assure you that, with the urgency which the matter requires, I shall make it my business to inform myself, not only of the correctness of the facts which you quote, but of any others which may exist, in order to be enabled, in view of them, and with a full knowledge of the subject, to return you an answer satisfactory, and as becomes the friendly relations which subsist between the Government which you so worthily represent, and that of the Queen my Sovereign. I avail, &c. H. L. Bulwer, Esq. RAMON MA. NARVAEZ. No. 4.-Mr. Bulwer to the Earl of Aberdeen.-(Received August 14.) WITH reference to my despatch of the 29th June, relative to the privileges enjoyed by French vessels in Spanish ports, I have the honour to inclose a copy and translation of the reply of General Narvaez, acquainting me that the Spanish Government will immediately inquire into the facts alleged by me, in order to be enabled to give a satisfactory answer on the subject. Regarding the precise nature and extent of the privileges in question, which your Lordship desires to know, I have to state that, according to the reports of Her Majesty's Consuls, French vessels only pay 12 maravedis per ton for the Tarifa Light House, whilst all other foreign vessels pay 24 maravedis per ton. At Malaga and Barcelona a contribution for continuing the mole and deepening the port is levied on Spanish vessels, while double the charge is made on all foreign vessels except French, which, in consequence of the Order of 10th May, 1817,* are placed on the same footing as Spanish vessels. Foreign ships are also charged at Malaga an old impost of a dollar and a half, called "Vara de Plata," from which French equally with Spanish vessels are exempted. Your Lordship will have observed that, in Barcelona alone, the sum of 3,337 dollars, or about 7237., has been paid by British shipping from the 1st of January to the 7th of July of this year, for the continued construction of the mole, and the cleaning of the port. As * Page 942. |