§ A Petition of the several persons whose names are thereto subscribed, on behalf of themselves and others whose claims have been adjudged good by the commissioners appointed by the act of parliament passed in the 43d year of his Majesty's reign, intituled, "An Act for appointing Commissioners for distributing the money stipulated to be paid by the United States of America, under the convention made between his Majesty and the said United States, among the persons having claims to compensation out of such money," being offered to be presented;
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, by command of the Prince Regent, acquainted the House, that his Royal Highness, having been informed of the contents of the said Petition, recommends it to the consideration of the House. Then the said Petition was presented and read; letting forth, "That, previous to the American war, 282 many British merchants, under the sanction and encouragement of the laws of their country, carried on a very extensive and in a national point of view, a very important commerce with their fellow subjects in North America, in the course of which debts to a large amount were necessarily contracted, and at the commencement of hostilities a sum of great magnitude remained due from the inhabitants of that country to the British merchants, and others his Majesty's subjects; and that the sudden suspension of all intercourse betwixt the two countries, in consequence of the war, preventing the possibility of using any means for enforcing payment of these debts during the continuance of the contest, the British creditors had no resource but to wart patiently for the return of peace, which they accordingly did, under the full conviction that no treaty could in justice or honour be agreed to by his Majesty's ministers, which did not clearly and unequivocally secure to them the complete recovery of, or ample compensation for all their just demands; and that, by the fourth article of the treaty of peace be-twen his Majesty and the United States of America, signed at Paris 3d September 1783, it was accordingly provided, 'That creditors on either side shall meet with no lawful impediment to the recovery of the full value, in sterling money, of all bona fide debts heretofore contracted,' the American government thereby pledging itself, in the strongest manner that a nation can do, that every lawful impediment should immediately be removed, which might operate as a bar to the recovery of British debts fairly contracted before the peace; and that, in breach of this article of treaty, not only those laws which the assemblies had enacted during the war against the recovery of debts due to British subjects were kept in full force and operation, but new laws were made to the same effect, the American judges, at the same time, either passing over the actions of British subjects when they came into court, or nonsuiting the plaintiffs in such actions, on the plea of British debt', or directing juries, and deciding on every occasion against them: by these means, the recovery of just debts to a vast amount was prevented, and the injured creditors were obliged to resort to their government for protection and relief: the injustice under which British subjects thus suffered being notorious and flagrant, their complaints 283 were attended to by the British government, and much discussion took place between the two governments on the subject; and that, for more than 10 years however, nothing effectual was done, and, during this lapse of time, debts originally good became bad, many of the debtors disappeared, and legal evidence became daily less attainable to support even such proceedings as had been evasively permitted in the American courts on the remonstrances of his Majesty's government, but at length the complaints of his Majesty's subjects, and the encreasing losses they sustained, were taken into full consideration, and a very elaborate article was concluded, which formed the sixth in the treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, concluded between his Majesty and the United States of America in the year 1794, and by which it was agreed, That the United States should make full and complete compensation to the British creditors for the losses and damages which they had sustained by the operation of various lawful impediments to the recovery of their debts from the citizens or inhabitants of the United States since the peace; and that for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of such losses and damages, five commissioners should be appointed, two by each of the contracting parties, and the fifth by those four, three of whom were to constitute a board with full power, provided one commissioner on each side and the fifth commissioner should be present; and that all decisions should be made by the majority of the commissioners present, and their award be final and conclusive, both as to the justice of the claim and the amount of the sum to be paid to the creditor, and the United States undertook to cause the sums awarded to be paid to the creditors in specie without deduction; and that in May 1797, the commissioners appointed for that purpose having met at Philadelphia, proceeded in the execution of this article, and the claimants not only prepared their several claims and statements, including many thousands of debts and different transactions, with the evidence to be adduced in support of them, but they also sent agents to attend at Philadelphia before the board and to assist the general agent, who had been appointed under the authority of his Majesty's government to direct their proceedings; but this solemn article of treaty, with all that had been done under it; was, after a great expence of time money and 284 labour, at once defeated by the conduct of the two commissioners appointed by the United States, for as soon as the discussions had arrived at that maturity which admitted of conclusive determinations on leading points, the commissioners appointed on the part of the United States on every occasion where those appointed by his Majesty and the fifth commissioner were ready to give an opinion and come to a vote different from theirs, or rather (as they expressed it), 'inconsistent with the interests of the United States, withdrew from the board, and at length refused to give their attendance upon any occasion, except on condition that the opinions prescribed by them on the points in question should be the rule, and thus the proceedings of this board came to nothing; and the petitioners, thus sorely disappointed and aggrieved, complained, through the proper channels, to his Majesty's government, by whom the extreme hardship of their case, and the injury they had sustained, were fully acknowledged; and the petitioners humbly conceive, that what thus took place in America amounted to a direct and positive breach of treaty on the part of the United States, for which his Majesty's government had a right to insist on ample satisfaction, such as would have included a full indemnification to his Majesty's injured subjects; and, although it was in the power of government to dispense with that satisfaction, either in whole or in part, and either altogether to sacrifice, or partially to give up, the private rights of the individuals, on such grounds of general policy or expediency, as in their wisdom should appear to be best for the interests of the empire at large; yet the petitioners humbly submit, that the general good ought not, in justice, to be purchased at their private expence; but they are entitled to receive, from the empire at large, such indemnification as will place them on a footing of equality with their fellow subjects; and that, after some delay, a negociation was entered upon at London, on this important subject, and, if his Majesty's government had thought it expedient to insist on full satisfaction, the petitioners would, of course, have been called open for that purpose, to state, and, in some satisfactory manner, to make out their respective losses; but, as they were not called upon to do this, it appeared that his Majesty's government thought it expedient, for the general good, to dispense 285 with the full satisfaction to which they Were entitled, and at once to pot an end to a negociation in its nature productive of irritation between the two nations, by accepting of such a sum of money from the United States as could be obtained from them in an amicable manner; and that a convention between his Majesty and the United States Was accordingly concluded on the 8th of January 1802, whereby it was agreed to, and concluded by the respective plenipotentiaries, that, in satisfaction and discharge of the money which the United States might have been liable to pay, in pursuance of the provisions of the sixth article of the treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation, the United States engaged to pay, and his Majesty consented to accept, for the use of the persons described in the said sixth article, the sum of 600,000l. payable in the manner therein mentioned; and that the petitioners presented their protest against being considered as acquiescing in the sum so accepted by his Majesty's government as a full compensation for their claims, and were thereupon advised that they could not, with propriety, urge any further claim at that moment, nor until the precise amount of their losses, and of the compensation to which they might have been entitled under the said sixth article, should be actually ascertained by the result of the inquiry which was then about to be instituted by government; and that a board of three commissioners was accordingly established, first in the year 1802 by a provisional authority, with a view to a commission from his Majesty, and afterwards by the act of parliament before-mentioned, which created a special jurisdiction for investigating and finally deciding on the amount of losses sustained by the persons described in the said sixth article of the treaty of 1794, and for the apportionment or distribution of the money agreed to be paid by the United States according to the decisions to be so given On the merits of the respective claims; and that, by the said act, after reciting the convention, and that "it was expedient that commissioners should be appointed for the apportioning, dividing or distributing such sum of money amongst the several persons who should by such commissioners be found entitled to receive compensation out of the same, in proportion to their several and respective claims, so far as the same should by such commissioners be approved or adjudged to be good: it was 286 enacted, that Thomas Macdonald, esq., Henry Pye Rich, esq., and John Guille-mard, esq. should be, and they were thereby, constituted and appointed commissioners for the purposes aforesaid; and that the adjudication of such commissioners, or any two of them, as to all claims made for compensation out of such money, and also as to the apportionment and distribution thereof as aforesaid, should be final and conclusive;" the time of presenting claims being limited to the 1st of June 1804; and that claims having been preferred under this act to the amount, including interest to the 1st of June 1804, of 5,408,766l. Os. 6l. sterling, and adjudications or decisions having from time to time been made either for or against claimants, the conclusion of the whole, so far as regarded the determination on the merits of the claims, was, that claims were established to the full satisfaction of the commissioners, and finally adjudged good and allowed by them, to the amount of 1,420,000l. which was announced in a general order of the commissioners, dated the 20th of May 1811, stating that 1,420,000l. of the claims preferred to them under the act, had been adjudged by them to be good, in proportion to which sum they were ready to divide what remained, (after deducting the payments already made of 659,493l. being the amount with interest of the divisible fund); and that the petitioners, without referring to the great expence, loss and inconvenience which they have, during the course of so many years, sustained, humbly submit to the House that they are entitled, according to the several adjudications in their favour, to receive respectively from parliament, to the amount of the difference between the above sum of 1,420,000l. the amount of their adjudged claims, and the said sum of 659,493l. which the said commissioners have so distributed, together with interest upon the amount of their several adjudications from the said 1st of June 1804, being the time to which the claims before the commissioners were made up; and praying the House will be pleased to take their case into its serious consideration, and grant them such relief as to the justice and wisdom of the House shall appear equitable and proper"
§ Ordered, to lie upon the table.