REPORT.

THE COMMITTEE to whom the PETITION of General BoYD, for an indemnification for the seizure of a cargo of Saltpetre, was referred, to examine the matter thereof, and to report the same, with their observations thereupon, to The House;

HAVE examined the

matters thereof, and agreed upon the following REPORT:

MR.

R. BOYD, a native and citizen of the United States of America, and now a general officer in their service, being in India in the year 1797, was proprietor and commander of a partizan corps, consisting of infantry, horse and artillery, amounting to 2,000 well appointed effectives, in the service of his Highness the Nizam.

On the 9th of August, at midnight, Mr. Kirkpatrick, the British resident at the court of the Nizam, was awakened out of his sleep by the sudden arrival, from Major Hyndman, an officer commanding a part of the British force subsidized by that prince, of a messenger who had been dispatched to him with the utmost possible expedition, with the alarming intelligence that Mons. Raymond, a Frenchman commanding a large corps officered by his countrymen in the service of the Nizam, had made a sudden movement with his whole force, with the intention, as was supposed, of attacking the greatly inferior British force, under Major Hyndman, in his neighbourhood. In these critical circumstances Mr. Kirkpatrick, after a short deliberation, lost no time in applying to General Boyd, requesting that he would assist the English in the unequal struggle, and immediately move to their neighbourhood, urging, to use his own words," that he might thereby eventually entitle himself, and "his whole party, to strong claims on the thanks of the British "Government."

General Boyd lost not a moment in assuring the British resident, that he would instantly put his corps under arms, and be ready on the first summons to support the British with his whole force. It appears from the evidence of Mr. Robins, an officer who served under him, that his corps was actually put in motion, and advanced someway towards the cantonment of Mons. Raymond, when General Boyd received another

408.

letter

Appendix

(A.)

Appendix (B.)

Min' 6th April.

letter from Mr. Kirkpatrick, dated early in the morning of the 10th of August, stating that he had just learned that the report conveyed in his former letter was totally unfounded; and in consequence, General Boyd returned to his encampment. It is stated by him, that his movement had the effect of disconcerting Mons. Raymond, and frustrating his object. On this point, the records of the East India Company give no information; but the evidence of Mr. Robins, the witness already mentioned, states that the officers serving under General Boyd, had an Min' 6th April. expectation of liberal reward from the British Government for the part they had acted; and Mr. Kirkpatrick, writing deliberately after the affair was over, expresses himself in the following terms:-" The readiness which you evinced to afford the assistance of your party, calls for my warmest thanks; and I shall not fail to make a proper report of it to the supreme government."

Appendix

(B.)

Appendix (A.)

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

According to General Boyd's representation to the court of directors in 1806, the decisive manifestation he had given of his attachment to the British interests operated most unfavourably on his own. That Mons. Raymond, indignant against General Boyd, represented in such strong terms his attachment to the English; and, on this ground, intrigued against him with such success, that notwithstanding his utmost efforts, and though, as it is right to remark, the General was assisted by the British resident; after various proceedings of a more or less suspicious character, he and his corps were at length dismissed from the service of the Nizam; and thus General Boyd lost a situation from which, as he himself states, he was deriving an income of six thousand rupees per month, or about 9,000l. per annum. His Highness the Peshwah, in whose employ he had before been, then invited General Boyd to resume his former situation, and the offer was accepted; but he was prevented from joining that prince by the measures of Scindiah, another Mahratta chief; and, as he himself says, disgusted with the politics and intrigues of India, he soon after left that country and returned to his native land.

Several years had now elapsed, when General Boyd hearing, in 1806, that many officers who had been in the service of the various native powers of India, had been amply rewarded for giving up situations of emolument rather than act in hostility towards the British interests, was prompted to prefer his claim to remuneration, on the double ground of the service he had rendered, and the situation he had lost. The mode of remuneration was suggested by himself, as one that would be of essential service to him; namely, that of his being permitted to ship at Calcutta S00 tons of saltpetre for America, as being likely, by a small sacrifice by the one party, to produce a very liberal remuneration to the other; guarding, at the same time, against the possibility of its coming into the hands of the enemy, by agreeing to contract with the government of the United States to import the whole for their use. Saltpetre was an article, the ordinary exportation of which from India was prohibited; and by the sale of this cargo in the United States, General Boyd might fairly hope, on a moderate computation, to realize from 30,000 1.

to

to 35,000l. sterling. To this proposition the directors of the East India company assented*, provided the plan should be sanctioned by the approbation of the King's ministers. His Majesty's ministers, when nade acquainted with all the circumstances of the case, willingly acceded to the proposal, and manifested their approbation of it by granting General Boyd a licence †, which was not merely to permit his transportation to America of so large a quantity of military stores, but even to protect his cargo from capture, in the event of a war breaking out between this country and America. General Boyd's property was thus secured against the attacks of any of our ships of war, even supposing that hostilities should have broken out between this nation and America; yet in a time of profound peace between the two countries, the ship Martha, in which the saltpetre was laden, having touched at the Cape of Good Hope, to land some English passengers, was violently detained by one of His Majesty's ships of war, and was condemned by the viceadmiralty court in that settlement. On an appeal to the proper court in this country, a decree in favour of General Boyd was obtained, and the restoration of the saltpetre was ordered; but before the decree reversing the original sentence had reached the Cape, the saltpetre had been precipitately sold for a sum comparatively so trifling as to do little more, according to General Boyd's account, than to compensate the charges incurred at the Cape. These transactions took place about the years 1807 and 1808, and it does not appear that for a considerable time afterwards he brought forward in this country his claim for the spoliation of his property at the Cape; but it is fair to remark, that for several years subsequent to the period here mentioned, the critical state of affairs between this country and the United States, rendered the times unfavourable to the further prosecution of his claim, and that afterwards the unhappy war between this country and America broke out. In that war it is also due to General Boyd to remark, that Your Committee are informed General Boyd not only maintained the character of a good officer, but displayed kindness and generosity to the British prisoners who fell into his hands. At length, the war being terminated, General Boyd came to this country, for the purpose of prosecuting his claim, and in the execution of that design he presented to the House the Petition which was referred to the Committee.

• Appendix A ;

referring to their records for the grounds of their favourable dispositions towards

Gen. Boyd.

+ See the Licence in the Minutes.

The Committee, in the course of its inquiries, felt it to be its duty to investigate the various accounts which contained the details of the pecuniary part of the transaction; several of these accounts will be found in the Appendix. This examination was rendered the more difficult and intricate, not only by the length of time that had elapsed, and by General Boyd's not being conversant with accounts, but still more by the circumstance of the subsequent failure of the mercantile house which had from the beginning conducted the commercial parts of this transaction in London, whilst General Boyd was absent in America, as well as when he was in this country. That commercial house had advanced the necessary funds for the purchase and transportation of the saltpetre; it had, apparently with a view to its own security, effected an insurance on the saltpetre; and when it was seized and condemned 408.

B

at

Appendix,
N° 3, &c.

at the Cape, that house, on the refusal of the underwriters to make good a loss so produced, sued them in the court of King's Bench, and obtained a decree for the amount of the whole sum insured. These transactions were terminated about the year 1811, whilst General Boyd was, as before mentioned, in America.

that on

From General Boyd's statements to the Committee, it appears, consulting with some American lawyers of character touching the nature of his claims on this country, for the spoliation of his property, they gave it as their opinion that these claims ought to be preferred, irrespectively of the insurance that had been effected, and charging the whole sum which the saltpetre would have produced if carried safely to America, after deducting the prime cost, freight and other charges of the adventure; on this principle, his original statement of his claim, prepared for the Committee, was constructed.

The produce of the saltpetre in America, which, it should be observed, was actually carried, there by the purchasers of it at the Cape, and sold for the price assumed in General Boyd's statement, amounted to

£. 50,962 And he deducted from this sum, for cost, freight and charges, 10,947 as abstracted from the books of his former London agents)

Besides which, he deducted for the sale produce of the saltpetre
at the Cape, under the decree of the Vice Admiralty Court)

41,015

3,609

The amount of what his compensation from the East India. Company would have produced to him if he had carried it 50,886 to America, stood at

But it may be observed that in this account there was a material error against General Boyd; for the sum of 3,6097. deducted as the produce of the saltpetre at the Cape, had been before deducted from the account of costs and charges, which stood, after such deduction, at the balance as above of 10,9477.; so that, in fact, he had committed an error to his own disadvantage of 3,6097. But in examining the said account of costs and charges, the Committee were for the first time apprized that the saltpetre had been insured to the amount of 16,800 Z of which about 14,000l. had been recovered from the underwriters by the suit above mentioned; and it was, upon inquiring into the reason why this had not been stated in General Boyd's first representation of his case, that he gave the explanation, which appears above, namely, that he had omitted the introduction of the insurance upon the opinion of the American lawyers, who had advised him; but the Committee is clearly of opinion, that the insurance, and the sum recovered thereby, 'ought to have been stated, inasmuch as the actual situation in which General Boyd presented himself for remuneration, must be different on the two suppositions of the insurance having or not having been made;

but