prize-money. It should be given, in the name of the Prince Regent, the King of the Netherlands, the Duke of Brunswick, and Grand-duke of Nassau, to the officers and troops present in the battles of the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th of June, or present with their regiments, or at their posts with the army at any period from that time till the 7th of July, when the army entered Paris.

According to this scheme, the officers and troops of the armies of the King of the Netherlands, King of Hanover, (with the exception of those corps in garrison in the Netherlands) Grand-duke of Nassau, and Duke of Brunswick, would be included with the British troops, with the exception of those of the latter in garrisons in the Netherlands; and the consent of the King of the Netherlands, King of Hanover, Grandduke of Nassau, and Duke of Brunswick, must be obtained.

If this plan should not be adopted, the sum of twenty-five millions would be to be divided between the several Powers whose troops formed the army under the command of the Duke of Wellington, according to the numbers which each Power was bound to furnish for the common cause.

Thus, then, Great Britain would receive for 150,000 men, the Netherlands for 50,000, Hanover for 10,000, Brunswick and Nassau each for 3,000 men. But the regiments composing the Brunswick and Hanoverian subsidiary corps, the former consisting of 4,100 men, the latter of 16,400 men, would share with the British troops, supposing, as I imagine, that the British Government would allot its share to be divided as prizemoney to the army.

It is obvious that, supposing all the Powers should agree, and should give what should come to them on this account to their troops who were present in the battle and on the occasions mentioned, there would be a great difference in the amount received by the officers and soldiers of each rank in the several services, and therefore it would probably be the best mode to allow the whole sum to be divided according to the

plan first proposed, as one mass, amongst the officers and soldiers of the whole army.

Lord Bathurst to Lord Castlereagh.

W.

Downing Street, November 7, 1815.

Dear Lord Castlereagh-Mr. Fagel has been twice with me on the subject of the fortifications to be erected in the Netherlands. It appears that the King's plan does not exactly accord with what I understood ours to be: he seems to consider that they are to be executed by his engineers-that, in addition to what is to be allotted out of the French contribution, we are to advance the two millions, and his Majesty is to be relieved from all charge.

My impression is that the system of fortification must be agreed upon between him and us; that we must have our share in the execution of the works; and that, if the expenses exceed what is to be allotted out of the French contribution for that service, it must be borne equally out of the two millions which each country stipulated should be respectively applied to that purpose, but that we might be induced to advance money on the credit of what France is to pay, if those payments should not be made to an amount sufficient to cover the running expense.

This I suggested to Mr. Fagel to be my opinion; but I added that the treaties had gone through you, and that I could not, therefore, give him any answer, except referring him to you, whose return was expected, and to whom I would communicate what had passed.

Mr. Fagel, in his second visit yesterday, expressed a great desire to have the business explained as soon as possible, because, he said, that the King of the Netherlands was strongly impressed with the idea that we were to make up, out of the two millions, whatever was deficient in the French contribution, and that Holland was to be completely relieved from

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all charge whatever. From some letters he had received from Holland, he was apprehensive that the King himself would pledge himself gradually (not publicly, but in private interviews) that Holland was to have no charge put upon her, and that he then would feel embarrassed, on a different interpretation being given to the transaction. I promised Fagel that you should be apprized of this as soon as you returned, but I have since thought I might as well write to you. We shall have no difficulty on the other points, except as to the system of fortification, as the King will prefer a large or a contracted one, according to the quarter from which the money is to

come.

Yours very sincerely,

BATHURST.

Mr. Brackenbury to Joseph Planta, Jun., Esq.

Paris, November 14, 1815. Sir-I have the honour to acknowledge your letter of the 11th instant, enclosing an extract of a communication from Baron Portal to his Excellency Lord Castlereagh, recommending that I should concert with Monsieur St. Cricq, Director-General of the Customs, respecting the amount due to British subjects under the decree of his Most Catholic Majesty of the 30th July, 1814, expressing also the opinion of his Excellency the present Minister of Finance, that no difficulty could arise out of the principle upon which the claims which I represent ought to be adjusted, and that nothing could remain after the proofs of their accuracy were ascertained but to fix the periods of payment.

I have in consequence waited upon Monsieur St. Cricq, and have seen in his absence M. Vigerie, the Secretary-General of the Customs, with whom I had last year repeated conferences upon the same subject. It is not without great regret that I announce to you, for the information of his Excellency Lord Castlereagh, that M. Vigerie still entertains sentiments which are in direct contravention with the opinions of those by whom

I was referred to M. St. Cricq; and although the Prince de Talleyrand, the late and present Minister of Finance, and the Baron de Portal, all admit the justice of the principle, M. Vigerie and the Comité des Finances du Conseil d'État presume to put their own construction upon the decree, and to make four objections to the claims, notwithstanding they are accompanied by proofs of their authenticity, properly attested: by the authorities at Bordeaux, to whom the investigation, in conjunction with myself, was entrusted.

Although I am prepared to enter into exceptions so unjustly and so frivolously taken, the fallacy of which has been already demonstrated to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and of Finance, and solemnly protested against by the British Ministers residing at this Court respectively since the decree of the King, I will not occupy the time of his Excellency Lord Castlereagh by entering into such details in this letter; I must, however, claim permission to observe that, if his lordship should leave Paris, without obtaining from the minor departments to which this business has been referred an acknowledgment of the amount claimed, or without some other security for the payment than the Baron de Portal's admission of the principle, not only no advantages can result from the powerful diplomatic intervention of his lordship, or the position we may still hold to enforce the fulfilment of an engagement contracted by the Bourbons themselves, and ratified by their own Ministers; but, the transaction being still left open to negociation, the British claimants will find themselves dependent upon the caprice of M. St. Cricq for the restitution of their property, amounting, without interest, to 1,316,212 francs, who, it appears to me, ought not to enter at all into the principle, but to confine himself strictly to the details of the

accounts.

I have the honour to be, &c.,

J. M. BRACKENBURY.

Mr. W. Hamilton to Sir Henry Bunbury, K.B.

Foreign Office, November 15, 1815. Sir-I transmit to you, by the direction of the Secretary of State, the enclosed note from Mr. Colquhoun, the diplomatic agent for the Hanseatic Republics, giving a circumstantial account of the manner in which the Senate of Bremen had been forced by the Danish Government to quarter and support in that city a certain number of troops, commanded by the Prince of Hesse, but forming a part of the army under the Duke of Wellington, and also representing the little prospect there is of getting these expenses refunded; and I am to desire that you will lay this paper before Lord Bathurst, submitting to his lordship whether, in his opinion, the nature of this transaction is such as to justify the interference of this Government, by retaining from the subsidies that may be due to Denmark a sum of money equal to the claims of the city of Bremen.

I am, &c.,

W. HAMILTON. PS. It is requested that the enclosure may be returned when done with.

[Enclosure.]
Note.

James Street, Westminster, November 14, 1815. The Undersigned Diplomatic Agent for the Hanseatic Republics begs leave to state to his Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Foreign Department, on behalf and by virtue of instructions received from the Burgomasters and Senate of Bremen, that, on the 22nd day of July last, the Danish Minister Rosenkrantz addressed a letter from the Royal Department of Foreign Affairs at Copenhagen to the Senate of Bremen, stating

"That, by order of the King, his most gracious Sovereign, he had the honour to inform the Senate that, his Majesty having agreed with his Britannic Hanoverian Majesty's Go