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otherwise of it, and returned without doing so. The fact is, there have been of late some bickerings between his Majesty and his Royal Highness, in a correspondence lately carried on between them. You are already aware that the Prince's name had transpired, and not very pleasantly, in the investigation of the affair of the conspiracy against the Duke of Wellington; this has weighed much upon his Royal Highness's mind, and one of the principal objects which induced him, late in May last, to offer to go to see the Duke at Cambray, was the effect which his thus appearing on intimate terms with the Duke would have in weakening at least, if not in effacing, any unpleasant impression, which might have been created in the public mind, in consequence of the appearance of his Royal Highness's name, however remotely, in connexion with such a procedure.

The Duke at that time promised to wait upon the Prince at Zoosdyke before the end of June, which would have had the same effect; but this visit is, and I think unfortunately, still to be paid. The Prince, brooding over all this in retirement at Zoosdyke, and probably not surrounded by the wisest counsellors, has lately addressed a letter to the King, in which he treats the whole conspiracy against the Duke as an absolute French fabrication, the principal object, perhaps, of which was to throw odium upon his name; and that this had been particularly evinced by the delays which have taken place in bringing such of the alleged conspirators as are in custody to trial, whereby the reports hostile to him have been suffered to extend and gather strength. He therefore calls upon the King to insist with the French Government, that if, as they allege, the conspiracy is a real one, they should immediately proceed to trial if not, that they should issue a declaration calculated to vindicate his Royal Highness from the calumnies which they had suffered to be thrown out against him.

To this the King has answered that it would be quite impossible to take the step desired by his Royal Highness; that

the obvious answer to any such application to the French Government would be, that the affair of the conspirators was proceeding in their courts of law, according to their forms, with which no foreign State could assume any right of interference; and that to such an answer it would be impossible to reply-but that, if his Royal Highness, early in May last, when they were together at Brussels, had taken his Majesty's advice, and gone directly thence to Cambray to the Duke, and laid open his whole mind to his Grace on the subject, his feelings would long since have been relieved; that still communication with the Duke of Wellington must be the only way of affording him relief; and he must therefore wait with patience till he should be enabled to have a personal interview with his Grace.

This correspondence was not, as I understand, conducted in the most gentle terms on either side, and this accounts for the fact of neither party having taken measures for seeing the other since the late delivery of the Princess.

I shall write, by this conveyance, a few words to the Duke of Wellington, whom I suppose still to be in England, urging him, on the above grounds, to endeavour to make this his way to Cambray and Paris. If the present state of the parties towards each other will admit of an accord between father and son upon the subject, the christening of the young Prince will probably take place on the 24th, the anniversary of the King's birth, and thus two matters become discharged at once. If so, whenever else the baptism shall take place, his Majesty purposes to proceed on the next day to the Loo, and dismiss us from attendance till his repair to Bruxelles. I shall, therefore, set out for that place as soon after the baptism as possible, in the hope of meeting you, and taking such directions as you may have to give on your passage to Aix. It would be a great convenience to me to know as nearly as can be the date assigned for your probable arrival there.

Yours, my dear lord, &c.,

CLANCARTY.

Lord Clancarty to Lord Castlereagh.

The Hague, August 25, 1818. My dear Lord-The young Prince, son of the Prince of Orange, was yesterday baptized by the names of William Alexander Frederick Constantine Nicholas Michael! The ceremony was very grand. There was also a levée and dinner at Court, and grand gala, play, and illumination, in the evening. The whole went off well, and the Court were well received.

The Prince of Orange, who rode here from Zoosdyke yesterday morning, in three hours and twenty minutes, has returned thither this morning, probably at the same rate. The King, Queen, &c., go to the Loo on Thursday, and the corps diplomatique will probably receive to-morrow the annual circular note to dispense with their attendance till the Court shall take up its residence at Bruxelles in October. I therefore purpose proceeding, with my whole family, at the close of this week, to Bruxelles, there to reside during the remainder of this year, and while the Court shall further continue there. This arrangement will give me the pleasure of seeing you on your passage through that place, and entertaining you during your stay there.

An instruction has been prepared, and I believe finally determined on, to enable General Robert Fagel to answer the joint letter of their Excellencies at Paris upon the Bouillon subject. It was read to me, and is not quite what I could wish. Its general purport is, however, as I expected it would be. It civilly tells their Excellencies that they are not known here either as arbitrators or mediators, this Court having had no communication through the ordinary channels of diplomacy, or received intimation from its Allies of their being placed in either of these situations, and, indeed, they themselves have not expressed in which of the two capacities they seek to place themselves. Equally desirous, however, with them that the 69th Article of the Act of Congress should be executed, this

Court will open an immediate and direct intercourse with the Allies, for the purpose of placing this matter in a state of final and equitable arrangement.

The faulty part of this instruction is, that, in one part, it directs General Fagel to say that the King is not aware of anything being said in the Act of Congress of mediation or arbitration, as relating to the case of the Bouillon indemnities, thus apparently placing all mediation or arbitration as of doubtful acceptance by this Court. This I represented to M. de Nagell as both impolitic and absurd, and he agreed with me; but whether the note will have to be altered in this particular, is nevertheless somewhat more than doubtful.

Adieu, my dear lord-what with the enormous work you have given us to do, and the package and removal of our effects, the Embassy papers, &c., we have abundant occupation during the remainder of our stay here.

Yours ever, very faithfully,

CLANCARTY.

Mr. E. Cooke to Lord Castlereagh.

Tunbridge Wells, August 28, 1818. My dear Lord-I write to wish you and Lady Castlereagh a pleasant and successful voyage, and I see not any circumstance which discourages that wish, for the few clouds which are above the horizon will, I think, merely threaten a little, and gradually diminish, if they do not disappear.

I do not expect much from Aix-la-Chapelle, except the admission of France to the confederacy, and the withdrawing the troops from her frontier.

I cannot conceive that you will go further in mediation with Spain than good offices, and possibly guarantees; but can Spain admit foreign Powers to guarantee her treatment of her subjects, and the perpetuation of a system of commerce for the sole benefit of foreign Powers? A mediation by arms is out of the question.

I suppose you will be delicate as to carrying your confederate superintendency of the great Powers to transatlantic and Colonial questions. I think it probable you may disapprove by declaration the occupation of Monte Video and Pensacola, and protest against any claim or pretension to be derived from such occupation. As, however, the question of the sovereignty of the Floridas is a vital question to both Spain and us, if we are to keep Jamaica, and Spain Cuba and Mexico, it may demand consideration, what may be the best timed policy for securing the Floridas from the dominion of the United States. I am confident that the American Government laments Jackson's conduct to Arbuthnot, and will disavow it, and I think their proceedings with our Commissioners on the Commercial Treaty will be conciliatory, and that they will do everything to soften us from taking a strong part on the Pensacola question, and to smooth our feelings as to the Floridas; for they can always negative any concession they make in treating, by throwing it out in their Senate. I look to Monroe's last speech on opening the legislature, and can only form my views by the principles it develops. There I see the animus. All the subsequent acts of the United States are in unison with that speech and they look on the present crisis as the most favourable for operation, when they conceive that we cannot oppose, but when the sacrifice of the cause would be evidently more fatal than the burdens of defending it. The Americans, I suppose, will join their cause to the Portuguese occupation of Monte Video.

If, in a plan of mediation, Spain were to stipulate that she would allow equality of commercial privileges to all States who withdrew from Puvottin all assistance, aid, and commerce and communication whatever, and concurred in the mediation-to the exclusion of all States who refused so to act-something might follow.

I shall conceive all will have succeeded for the best at Aix-la-Chapelle, if the great Powers agree for another meet

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