event, it had been his (Mr. Thomas's) indispensable duty to remind that gentleman of the transaction on his quitting office in 1804, in order, that if it had not been satisfactorily explained, he might then have stated it to me and my colleagues, on our appointment: to which Mr. Thomas answered, he had called two or three times at Mr. Steele's door, without finding him at home: such a justification appeared to render his conduct stili less excusable; because if he thought it Recessary to see Mr. Steele on the subject, he certainly should have apprized Itim of his wish to do so, that he might be sure of meeting with him. I therefore desired him to write to Mr. Steele, to insure his seeing him, and to let me know, on my return from Bugden, whether any interposition of mine with Mr. Steele would be necessary: on the 20th, Mr. Thomas came to me accordingly, when Ire told me that he had seen Mr. Steele, who said generally, that the sums before mention ed as received by him were for army services. Whether, subsequent to the communica tion made by Mr. Bradshaw in the presence of Mr. Thomas, you had any communication with Mr. Steele on the subject; and if so, what was the purport of it? I had a personal communication with Mr. Steele on the 21st February, which I considered as of a private nature, being out of office; but the particulars of which I am perfectly willing to give.-Mr. Rose being desired to proceed, stated, that Mr. Steele declined entering into particulars, not feeling himself at liberty to do it; that the advances were made to a person or persons, he was not sure which, for services of a secret nature; that the whole would be repaid, but he could not at that moment exactly fix the time, acknowledging that he had no warrant, or other authority for the issue: the advice I gave him was, that, under such circumstances, I thought he should see either lord Greaville, or the present pay-master general, and explain to his lordship, or them, so much of the transaction as should satisfy them,-the whole, certainly, if they should think it necessary; adding, that it was by all comparison better he should do that in the first instance from himself, than wait to give an explanation when he should be called upon to do so; especially, as the precedent in this case would shew to future Paymasters general, the possibility of their taking money placed in the bank on account of the public, for their own private accommodation, at any time when they should find themselves under a pressing urgency to do so, which was plainly against the spirit of the pay-office act. I wrote to him the

cumstances which relate to the issue of "the two sums in question: you may "therefore, if you think proper, apprize "Mr. Thomas of my intention.". Whether, on the same day that Mr. Bradshaw made the communication relating to Mr. Steele in the presence of Mr. Thomas, you, in the same conversation, expressed your willingness to enter in the Minute Book a minute, recommending to the notice of your successor an increase of salary to the six senior Clerks ?-Of that, I have no recollection, as to its having passed on that day; but the measure having been agreed on by my colleague and myself previously thereto, it may have happened that upon that day I told them I would enter the minute. I have no recollection of the minute being anté-dated, but I think it probable it may have been so, as on the 10th I considered inyself completely out of office.

The Committee who were appointed to take

into consideration the Commercial State of the West India Colonies, and to report their proceedings, from time to time, to the House of Commons; and who were empowered to report the minutes of evidence taken before them; and to whom ail minutes of evidence which were taken before the Committee in the last Session of Parliament, on the West India Planters' Petitions, together with their proceedings, were referred; have, pursuant to the order of the House, examined the matters to them referred; and have agreed to the following Report:

Your committee have thought it their duty, in the first place, to inquire into the situation of the West India Planters at the present moment, and for several years preceding; and have examined various respectable witnesses, proprietors of estates, who have resided many years in the West Indies, and who have had the properties of several absentees under their management; and also many merchants intimately acquainted with the expenses and profits of a great variety of estates, and generally conversant

with the West India Commerce. From their testimony it appears, that since the year 1799, there has taken place a progressive deterioration in the situation of the planters, resulting from a progressive diminution of the price of sugar, although at the same time the duty, and all the expences attending the cultivation, have been increasing, till at length the depression of the market has become such, that the prices obtained for the last year's crop will not pay the expence of cultivation, except upon estates on a very great scale, making sugar of a very superior quality, or enjoying other extraordinary advantages. Calculations have been laid before your committee, from the accounts of estates both in Jamaica and the other Islands, by which it appears, that the British supplies and Island expenses amount to 20s. 103. in the former, and to 19s. 6d. in the latter, on the cwt. of sugar, after accounting and giving credit for the amount received for the sale of ruun. As these calculations are formed upon an average of years and upon estates of the ordinary scale, and in no respects unusually circumstanced, it appears to your committee, that these sums per cwt. of sugar may be taken as the average expense of cultivation, Independent of interest upon the capital; and your committee are confirmed in this opinion by finding a similar calculation in the Report made by the Sugar Distillery Committee, in the last parliament. To this must be added an expense of from 15s 6. to 16s. per ewt. necessarily incurred for freight, insurance and other mercantile charges, between the shipping the goods in the colonies, and their being offered to market in this kingdom, forming together an amount of from 35s. to 36s. which appears upon this evidence, to be the absolute cost to the planter per cwt, of sugar, before any return of capital can attach. Upon a reference to the average prices published in the Gazette, for the last eight months, which vary from 86s, to 31s. giving a mean price of 33s. 6d., it appears evident, that the planters must have cultivated their estates at a loss. The interest which has been stated to your Committee as what should be the fair profit upon a capital of such a nature as that of & Sugar estate, consisting not merely of land and Negroes, but of buildings of great extent and cost, necessary for the carrying on of such manufactures, and subject to various and peculiar risks and vicissi tudes, is not less then 10 per cent-During the period of prosperityprevio ao 1800, it is stated that in general the profits did not exceed that sum and that, for that period, they have gradually dininiphoto and 11 per cent,

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till at the present moment, there is no return of interest whatever-It may perhaps be` right to notice one exception, namely, of an estate most favourably circumstanced in every respect, where the profits are stated to have amounted during the four years 1795, 1796, 1797 and 1799, to 12 per cent; but they appear also to Have declined ever since; in 1901, 1802, 1803, and 1804, to have been reduced to about 6 per cent, and in 1805, to about 3 per cent, and subsequently to have suffered a still farther reduction. In the course of their investigation of the situation of the planters, your Committee thought it right to ascertain whether it might not be in their own power, in many instances, to remedy the evils of their situation, by converting their sugar estates; to other more profitable cultivation; but the evidence on that point, shews, that such a conversion must be attended with so great a sacrafice of capital, as to be out of the question as a measure of relief. With a view to the prospect for the future, they have obtained a return of the quantity of sugar at present in the West India Docks; from which and from other evis dence, it appears, that the quantity now on hand is unusually great for the time of year. The crop of last year is also on the point of coming into the market. It should not be omit ted further to state, that for many years past the islands have almost entirely escaped the natural calamities (of hurricanes, &e.) which have occasionally proved destructive to the property in those countries. To inves tigating the causes of that depression of the market, from whence the whole of the planter's distress appears to originate, the first object which strikes your Committee, is, that extraordinary situation in which he is placed, which prevents him alone (in excepttion to every other similar case) from indemnifying himself for the increase of duty, and of other expenses attending his cultivation, by an equivalent increase of price to the consumer. For it appears, that since the year 1799, the duty on sugar has been raised from 20s. to 27s. and contingently to 30s. per cwt.; the expences of the estates are calculated to have risen in many articles 50, and in others above 100 per cent, and the price has fallen from 69s. to 33s. 6d. per cwt. the average of the last eight months. As it appears obvious, from the above statement, that the duty is heavier than the artis cle can bear at its present price, it is suggested that it might be expedient, for the relief of the home market, to extend the principle which has been adopted on the contingent increase of duty from 275. to 30s.; so that from the maximum of duty then fixed; un

a gross price of 80s. affording 30s. duty and 50s. to the planter, the duty should be thrown back on a similar scale in proportion to the depression of the market, till the price arrives at 60s. gross, leaving 20s. (the origi nal duty) to government, and 40s. to the planter; or, in other words, a reduction of 2s.gross price, from the average then fixed for 1s. of duty on a reduction of the imposition of the new duty, as far as 205.An increase of the bounty on the export has been also recommended; and your committee are of opinion, that it would afford great relief if given as an accompaniment to measures of restriction upon neturals, so as to render the expences on British and foreign produce equal in the foreign market. -A considerable depreciation in the price of rum having also taken place, it has been suggested, that the encouragement of the consumption of that article would be a considerable advantage to the Planter. Your committee are aware that such encouragement has been given, to a certain extent, but if it were found practicable to carry that assistance further, by an increased consumption in the army and navy, such a measure would, in their opinion, have very beneficial effects; or a reduction of duty on rum might afford essential relief to the planter, without loss to the revenue, which would be indemnified by an increased consump tion of that spirit.-Great, however, as are the evils of the decrease of price and increase of charges, it does not appear to your committee, that they are the original causes of the distress of the planter, by applying to which alone any practicable remedy, he could be more than partially relieved; but that the main evil, and that to which these are ultimately to be referred, is the very unfavourable state of the foreign market, in which formerly the British merchant enjoyed nearly a monopoly, but where he cannot at present enter into competition with the planters, not only of the netural but of the hostile colonies. The result of all their enquiries on this most important part of the subject has brought before their eyes one grand and primary evil, from which all the others are easily to be deduced; namely, the facility of intercourse between the hostile colonies of Europe, under the American neutral flag, by means of which not only the whole of their produce is carried to a market, but at charges little exceeding those of peace, while a British planter is burdened with all the inconvenience, risk, and expence, resulting from a state of war. The advantages which the hostile colonies drive from the relaxation of that principle,

which prohibited any trade from being carried on with the enemy's colonies by nentrals during war, which the enemy himself did not permit to those neutrals during peace, may be in part estimated by reference to a statement of the imports into Amsterdam alone, from the United States of America, in the year 1 06, amounting to 34,085 hbds. : of coffee, and 45,097 hhds of sugar, con•^ veyed in 211 vessels, hereunto' annexed;. and to a statement also annexed, of the amount of West-India produce, exported from the United States of America, between the 1st. October, 1905, and 30th September, 1806. In point of comparative expense, the advantages of the hostile colonies will be further illustrated by the evidence of Mr. Marryat, supported by satisfactory documents, which show the charges of freight and insurance om sugar, from the hostile colonies, through the Unis: ted States of America, to the ports of Hol land and Flanders, and to those of the Mediterranean, to be less by 8s. Id. to the former, and by 12s. 6d to the latter, than those charges on British sugars to the same ports. Your committee cannot omit to state also another important advantage enjoyed by the French colonies, from the sale of neary: the whole French mercantile marine tor neutrals, under the stipulation of Teachi vessel being returned into French ports, in order to be navigated as French ships, within twelve months after peace, and with the enjoyment, during war, of the same privi leges in the ports of France, as if they were actually French, for instance, to import sugar at a duty of 4s per cwt less than the duty imposed on sugar imported in neutral vessels. In order to counterbalance, in some degree, the advantages thus enjoyed by the hostile colonies, to the detriment of the British planter, it has been recommended, that a blockade of the ports of the enemy's settlements should be resorted to such a measure, if it could be strictly enforced, would undoubtedly afford relief to our export trade.-But a measure of more permanent and certain advantage would be the enforcement of those restrictions on the trade between neutrals and the enemy's colonies, which were formerly maintained by Great Britain, and from the relaxation of which the enemy's colonies obtain indirectly, during war, all the advantages of peace; while our own colonies, in the intercourse with whom that system of mono

poly which has been held essential to the commercial and military navy of this co try, is rigorously enforced, are depavi of the advantages under which in forme

wars they carried their produce to the foreign markets, and which in the present war, by means of our decided naval superiority, would have amounted to the exclusive supply of the whole of Europe; and when those extraordinary measures are taken into consideration which have been adopted to exclude the British colonial produce from the European market, it appears to your 'committee to be a matter of evident and imperious necessity, to resort to such a system, as by impeding and restricting, and, as far as possible, preventing the export of the produce of the enemy's colonies from the places of its growth, shall compel the continent to have recourse to the only source of supply which, in that event, would be open to it.-As it may be apprehended that from the adoption of such measures, difficulties might arise in that intercourse, from which the West Indies at present derive a considerable proportion of some of their supplies, your committee have thought it their duty to make inquiry into the resources in that respect to which recourse might be had in such an event. During the only period which affords an example of the suspension of that intercourse, the evidence concurs as to the fact of a supply having been obtained (though not without temporary and occasional inconveniences) from a variety of sources which may reasonably be relied upon, in case of such necessity, at the prescut moment, to a greater amount than at the former period. From the examination of persons who, in consequence of their residence in the British North Amicrican settlements, or extensive commercial connections with them, possess the best information as to their present and future resources, there is ground to believe that some supply of the principal articles of lamber might be obtained from ther-ce immediately, and to expect that, with dae encouragement, the quantity of that supply might be increased to any extent.-The supply of four which they could ai present afford to the West India market would be small, and of inferior quality. They appear to be capable of affording a large supply of fish, and what deficiency might exist in other articles of salt provisions, might be nade up by supplies from Europe.-Upon the whole, the impression which your comInittce have received, is, that the trade now carried on between the British West Indies and the United States of America, is very convenient and advantageous to the inhabi tants of our colonies, and one which they could not relinquish without essential detriment, unless it were compensated by other

advantages; but that it is not essential to their existence, or equivalent to the disadvantages of their situation, in those respects which your committee have already gone through in the present statement.-Your committee having briefly stated the distressed situation of the West-India Planter -the causes which have gradually produced his: distress, which are beyond his reach to remedy, and which must continue to operate with increased effect-and having stated such measures of relief as have been suggested to them, and such as, from the best sources of information, appear most adequate to the end in view, bave only to add, that if those remedies are liable to objections and difficulties, there is on the other hand the strongest concurrent testimony and proof, that unless some speedy and efficient measures of relief are adopted, the ruin of a great number of the planters, and of persons in this country, holding annuities, and otherwise dependent upon those properties for their income, must inevitably very scon take place, which must be followed by the loss of a vast capital, advanced on securities in those countries, and by the most fatal injury to the commercial, maritime, and financial interests of Great Britain.

PUBLIC PAPERS, AUSTRIA-Note of Mr. Conning, English Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, to Prince Stanremberg, the Austrian Ambassador at London, dated London, April 25, 1807.

The undersigned, his Majesty's Princip:1 Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, has laid before the King the Note delivered to him by Prince Stahrenberg, Ambassador Extraordinary, and Minister Plenipotentiary of his Majesty the Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia, in which his Imperial Majesty offers himself as the Mediator of a General Peace. The undersigned has received it in command from the King his Sovereign, to communicate to Prince Stabremberg the inclosed official answer to the Note of his Imperial Majesty. The king does complete justice to the motives that have induced his Imperial Majesty to propose a mode of negociation which, by embracing the interests of all parties, can alone lead to the restoration of a lasting peace, and the permanent tranquillity of Europe; and his Majesty, therefore, accepts the offer of his Imperial Majesty's mediation, so far as he is concerned; but with this provision that it shall also be accepted by all the other powers involved in the prescut

war.