CIRCULAR to British Representatives in Foreign States, respecting Debts due by Foreign States to British Subjects. -London, January, 1818.* (Circular.) Foreign Office, January, 1848. HER Majesty's Government have frequently had occasion to instruct Her Majesty's Representatives in various foreign States to make earnest and friendly, but not authoritative, representations in support of the unsatisfied claims of British subjects who are holders of public bonds and money securities of those States. As some misconception appears to exist in some of those States with regard to the just right of Her Majesty's Government to interfere authoritatively, if it should think fit to do so, in support of those claims, I have to inform you, as the Representative of Her Majesty in one of the States against which British subjects have such claims, that it is for the British Government entirely a question of discretion and by no means a question of international right, whether they should or should not make this matter the subject of diplomatic negotiation. If the question is to be considered simply in its bearing upon international right, there can be no doubt whatever of the perfect right which the Government of every country possesses to take up, as a matter of diplomatic negotiation, any well-founded complaint which any of its subjects may prefer against the Government of another country, or any wrong which from such foreign Government those subjects may have sustained; and if the Government of one country is entitled to demand redress for any one individual among its subjects who may have a just but unsatisfied pecuniary claim upon the Government of another country, the right so to require redress cannot be diminished merely because the extent of the wrong is increased, and because, instead of there being one individual claiming a comparatively small sum there are a great number of individuals to whom a very large amount is due. It is therefore simply a question of discretion with the British Government whether this matter should or should not be taken up by diplomatic negotiation, and the decision of that question of discretion turns entirely upon British and domestic considerations. It has hitherto been thought by the successive Governments of Great Britain undesirable that British subjects should invest their capital in loans to foreign Governments instead of employing it in profitable undertakings at home; and with a view to discourage hazardous loans to foreign Governments who may be either unable or unwilling to pay the stipulated interest thereupon, the British Government has hitherto thought it the best policy to abstain from taking up as international questions the complaints made by British • Laid before Parliament, 1852. subjects against foreign Governments which have failed to make good their engagements in regard to such pecuniary transactions. For the British Government has considered that the losses of imprudent men who have placed mistaken confidence in the good faith of foreign Governments would prove a salutary warning to others, and would prevent any other foreign loans from being raised in Great Britain except by Governments of known good faith and of ascertained solvency. But, nevertheless, it might happen, that the loss occasioned to British subjects by the non-payment of interest upon loans made by them to foreign Governments might become so great that it would be too high a price for the nation to pay for such a warning as to the future, and in such a state of things it might become the duty of the British Government to make these matters the subject of diplomatic negotiation. In any conversation which you may hereafter hold with the Ministers upon this subject, you will not fail to communicate to them the views which Her Majesty's Government entertain thereupon, as set forth in this despatch. I am, &c. PALMERSTON. CORRESPONDENCE between Great Britain and Spain, respecting the renewal of Diplomatic Relations.—March, April, 1850.* No. 1.-Senhor Pidal to Viscount Palmerston. MOST EXCELLENT SIR, (Translation.) Madrid, March 30, 1850. THE Spanish Government, which deplores, and has always deplored, the state of interruption which has for some time past existed in the diplomatic relations with the Government of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, and the causes which have produced this unfortunate state of affairs, desires nothing with more sincerity and good faith than the renewal of those relations in a manner worthy and suitable to the character of the 2 Governments, and the renewal of the ties which for ages, have united 2 friendly nations, bound together by so many interests, and by so many and such glorious recollections. Animated by this desire, the Spanish Government does not hesitate to give a new proof of the sincerity of its sentiments, and of the high esteem in which it holds the friendship of Great Britain, by taking the initiative in the steps destined to bring about a re-establishment of the ancient relations. * Laid before Parliament, 1852. The Spanish Government believes that, in order to bring about so desirable an object, there is no occasion to enter into a discussion of events already past. The Government of Her Catholic Majesty regrets and deplores those events, and desires that they should be sincerely and completely consigned to oblivion. But the real state of the case, and above all, the consideration due to a friendly nation require that the Spanish Government should declare in the most explicit and solemn manner, as by the present note it does, that in the measures which in alarming circumstances it felt called upon to adopt, it was not in any manner whatever its intention to give the least offence to Great Britain, or to hurt her dignity in the slightest manner. If in consequence of these proceedings, and of this frank and explicit declaration, it should suit the Cabinet of London to re-establish the ancient diplomatic relations, the Spanish Government declares itself ready to receive any Minister whom it may please Her Britannic Majesty to send to Madrid, and it flatters itself that in the frank and friendly manner in which the Representative of England will be treated, and in the efforts which on its part it will make to draw closer the relations between the 2 countries, the English nation will find a new proof of the interest and importance which Spain attaches to the friendship of Great Britain, and of the upright intentions with which it is animated in this respect. The Government of Her Catholic Majesty trusts, then, that the step which it comes forward to take will not prove ineffectual; and that Her Britannic Majesty's Government duly responding thereto, relations of mutual consideration and friendship will be re-established and maintained in a firm and durable manner, in conformity with ancient ties and recollections, and with the convenience and interest of both nations. The Undersigned, &c. Tiscount Palmerston, G.C.B. PEDRO J. PIDAL. No. 2.-Viscount Palmerston to Señor Pidal. SIR, Foreign Office, April 23, 1850. THE Government of Her Britannic Majesty has received the note which has been addressed to it by the Government of Spain through the intervention of His Majesty the King of the Belgians, expressing the regret of the Spanish Government at the existing interruption of the diplomatic relations between Great Britain and Spain; stating the earnest wish of the Spanish Government that those relations should be resumed; declaring that in the circumstances which led to their interruption the Spanish Government was not actuated by any intention to give offence to Great Britain; proposing that past events should be consigned to oblivion; and further saying, that if in consequence of this frank and explicit declaration, it should suit the British Government to re-establish the ancient diplomatic relations between the 2 countries, the Spanish Government declares itself ready to receive any Minister whom it might please Her Britannic Majesty to send to Madrid. The British Government being as desirous as the Government of Spain can be, that those friendly relations which had so long. subsisted between the 2 countries, to their mutual advantage, should be re-established in a manner consistent with the honour and dignity of both nations, accepts this overture in the same spirit of conciliation in which it has been made; and the British Government is willing, in accordance with the desire expressed by the Government of Spain, to consign past events sincerely and completely to oblivion. Her Majesty will therefore appoint a Minister to the Court of Madrid. If Sir Henry Bulwer had been at the present moment unemployed, the deep interest which that Minister has always taken in the prosperity of the Spanish nation, and in the honour and dignity and stability of the Throne of the Queen of Spain, would have led Her Majesty's Government to think that no person could have been better qualified than he would have been to re-establish, in a solid and durable manner, the diplomatic relations between the 2 countries. But Sir Henry Bulwer being at present employed on the Queen's service elsewhere, Her Majesty will select some other suitable person to represent her at the Court of Madrid; and in return the British Government assures the Government of Spain that any Minister whom the Queen of Spain may be pleased to appoint to the Court of St. James's, will be received with that cordiality which is due towards the Representative of a Power connected with Great Britain by ancient and most honourable ties. I have, &c. Señor Pidal. PALMERSTON. CORRESPONDENCE respecting an Assault committed in London upon an Austrian General (Marshal Haynau).September, October, 1850.* No. 1.-Baron Koller to Viscount Palmerston. Chandos House, le 5 Septembre, 1850. LES journaux de ce matin ont rendu compte de l'outrage qui a éte commis hier envers son Excellence M. le Général de Cavalerie, Baron de Haynau, lors de la visite qu'il a faite, accompagné de ses 2 aides-de-camp, à la brasserie de MM. Barclay, Perkins, et Co., dans le but de voir cet établissement. * Laid before Parliament, 1851. Le Général, avant de partir aujourd'hui pour Douvres, où il compte s'embarquer demain pour Ostende, a déclaré ne point vouloir intenter complainte. Comme cependant l'attaque injurieuse a été dirigée contre un Général Autrichien, le Soussigné, Chargé d'Affaires de Sa Majesté Impériale et Royale Apostolique, se croit en devoir d'adresser la prière à son Excellence M. le Vicomte Palmerston, Principal Secrétaire d'Etat au Département des Affaires Etrangères de Sa Majesté la Reine du Royaume Uni de la Grande Bretagne et d'Irlande, que même à défaut d'une accusation intentée conformément aux lois, des investigations soient provoquées dans l'établissement de MM. Barclay, Perkins, et Co., où les commis paraissent avoir été les instigateurs à des actes d'une féroce brutalité, qui, sans l'intervention fortuite de la police, auraient eu des suites funestes. Le Soussigné est persuadé d'avance des sincères regrets que son Excellence aura voués à ce fait outrageux; il est contraire aux habitudes de liberté de ce pays et à son hospitalité sans limites; il a pris source dans un renom vilipendé par de calomnieuses exagérations de quelques journaux et par la haine d'un partie, et a failli coûter la vie à celui qui eu a été l'objet. S. E. le Vicomte Palmerston, G.C.B. Le Soussigné, &c. A. B. KOLLER. No. 2.-Viscount Palmerston to Baron Koller. Foreign Office, September 14, 1850. THE Undersigned, &c., has the honour to acknowledge the official note addressed to him on the 5th instant by Baron Koller, &c., calling attention to the assault committed upon General Haynau on the occasion of his visit to the brewery of Messrs. Barclay, Perkins, and Co.; and requesting that an investigation might be made into the circumstances of this assault. In reply, the Undersigned has the honour to state to Baron Koller, that Her Majesty's Government deeply regret that an officer in the military service of the Emperor of Austria should have been exposed in this country to such outrageous violence and insult as was experienced by General Haynau on the occasion to which Baron Koller's note relates; and the Undersigned will not fail to refer Baron Koller's note to the Secretary of State for the Home Department, according to Baron Koller's wish. Baron Koller. The Undersigned, &c. PALMERSTON. No. 3.-Mr. Addington to Mr Waddington. SIB, |