The Express.
London, England, 1853-12-09 00:00:00

BUENOS AYRES DEBT.

--.

Yesterday a meeting of the holders of Buenos
Ayres Bonds was convened by the committee of Spanish
American bondholders, at the Loudon Tavern; Mr. J. D.
retwi.es in the chair.
The Citalitswr, after explaining that he appeared in
that position in consequence of the absence of the chairman
of the committee (Sir J. L. tioldansiel), from indisposition,
proceeded to say that it was upwards of a twelvemonth since
i any meeting of the bondholders had been held, the reason
of this being that the political condition of Buenos Ayres
had until recently been such as to render it impossible to
do anything to advance the adjustment of its foreign debt.
Attempts had, indeed, been made by Messrs. Baring, who
had never lost sight of the interest of the bondholders ; two
gentlemen of the name of White, who were brothers, had
been sent out to represent the interest of the bondholders, but
the state of the country was such that it would have been •
I waste of time and mosey for them to remain there, and
some months since they returned to England. A better
state of things, however, had since arisen. The unhappy
contests of the country were, there was reason to hope, at
an end. lie held in his hand the message of the present
president of the republic to the legislature of Buenos Ayres,
nelivered on the 30th of September last, expressing a
hope that internal dissensions and troubles had been,
brought to a close. In the same message the pre-
sident adverted particularly to the foreign debt of
the republic. The following was a transl.tion of that
part of the message which related to this subject
The public debt is considerable ; but it is not of so
alarming a nature fora country whisk has such undeveloped
resources as ours. The government is, therefore, of opinion
that it Is necessary to attempt its udjustinent. The admi-
nistration of Rosas had indefinitely postponed the payment
of (Lomita on the treasury, the amount of which is not
yet ascertained, notwithotandiug which it may be nearly
assumed that the debt, anterior to the 3rd of February,
amounts to fur:y.lll,e millions of dollars, including in this
sum the produce of the estates confiscated by Roses, the
emouut of which he abstracted from the rash department
of deposits. The exigible debt contracted after the 3rd of
Februery exceeds three millions of dollars, without includ-
ing a credit acknowledged in favour of Don Tomas Sluyd
Alsey, which amounts to 90,000 hard dollars, pay-
able by an annuity of 1,000 hard dollars. The
loan of five millions that the provisional govern-
ment of the 11th act September asked from the Mint
is still unpaid, and likewise the interest thereon. The go-
werainent informs you with pleasure that the issue of ten
millions by the law of the 17th May last is very nearly
covered by the ' letras do receptoria ' remitted by the
government to the Mint. The government also informs
you, with the same pleasure, that at the close of the ordi-
nary sessions it fulfilled the duty it had imposed on itself to
give an account of the applicetiou of the fends voted by
you for war expenses. The government, in the very midst
of the serious difficulties which existed, has continued to
pay the assignment of five thousand hard dollars on account
of the London loan. The government believes that it would
be very easy to make a very advantageous arrangement
with the bondholders, the result of which would be to raise
our foreign credit, and gradually to.evinsuish a debt which
has immensely increased only through the mismanagement
of the administration of Don Juan Manuel de Bow.
_ .

With the Caine exactitude the interest of the public debt has
been paid, and the interest of the 4,385,600 dollars of treasury
bills, with the diminution granted by government in November
last." lie (the chairm n) believed that, in the midst of is
trouble., the republic had made great progress in the re-
duction of the domestic debt. The committee thought that
tile time had now come when, with some probability of
usefulness, a special commissioner might be sent to Buenos
Ayres to represent the interest of the bocelholders; and
they had accordingly entered into an engagement :with a
gentleman who was well known in the City, and highly
qualified to undertake the mission, to go out with no other
object than that of demanding the immediate settlement of
all arrears on some satisfactory basis, and the resumption of
the payment of the principal of the debt at the
rate at which it was contracted. That Buenos Ayres,
when in a state of tranquillity, had tho means
of doing this, no one who was at all acquainted with the
country could for it moment doubt. Its revenue, even in
hail times, was not less than five million hard dollars, which
was more than the ue of Chid at the time when it
made an arrangement for the liquidation of its debt. It
was the wish of the committee that no time should be lost
in pressing the claims of the bondholders on the govern-
ment. The gentleman to whom he had referred would
leave by the packet to-morrow morning, for the purpose of
going to Buenos Ayres on his mission ; and the object of
convening that meeting was to strengthen his hands in the
performance of his duty. Three resolutions were then pro-
posed from the chair, and severally agreed to. By the first
the meeting expressed its approval of the sending out of •
'pedal commissioner to represent the bondholders; by the
second it expressed an earnest hope that, considering the
vast delay which had taken place in si.tisfying the claims of
the bondholders, the government of the republic would be
prepared, on the arrival of the special commissioner, to
adjust the same without further delay; and by the last the
meeting pledged itself to reimburse the committee, out of
the first proceeds of the adjustment of the debt, the expense
incurred on the mission. This terminated the proceedings

THE SUNDAY STEAM-BOATS ON THE CLYDE.

The case of the Emperor steamer, which has been
sot (ten mentioned in the public papers on account of the
annoyance which It has ciused to the Sabbatarians of Glas-
gow by its Sunday pleasure trips, came on Tuesday last
before the second division of the Court of Session, Edin-
bur.rh. The complainer, Sir James Colquhoun, prayed the
court to prohibit the respondents, Mr. Andrew Paton and
othi rs, the proprietors of the steamer, or other parties
employed by them, from landing and embarking passengers
upon any part of the property of the complainer on Sun-
days ; and, in particular, from lan ling passengers at the
piers of Garelochhead, Arrachar, Row, or Rowmore, in
vessels leaving and returning to Glasgow on Sundays, or
from pasting along said piers, or trespassing on the pro-
perty of the complainer; also to interdict the respondents
or others from forcing open the gates of the piers, or
destroying the fences which may be erected by tne com-
plainer, or from using force against the complainer's set-
yenta engaged in the protection of the piers or the pounds
adjacent.
Mr. Patton contended that the piers were the private
property of Sir James Celquhoun. About the middle of
July last, the respondents formed themselves into a com-
pany, and acquired possession of the Emperor, for the pur-
pose of mating pleasure tripe co Sundays from Glasgow to
the Gareloch and other parts of the Clyde. On Sunday,
the 24th July, the steamer was brought up to the pier at
Garelochhead. The gates were thee locked as usual, and
the passengen in the steamboat were informed that no land-
ing waa permitted there on Sundays. To this, however, no
attention was paid, and the passengers, with the sanction of
the respondents, who had brought their vessel there for the
express purpose of forcing • landing, got out on the quay,
pushed open the gate near the platform, and forced their
way over the outward gate. This was repeated on several
successive Sundays. Oa the 21st August, the Emperor
brought up again at Oarelochhead pier, which was then
protected by three policemen, whou object was
peaceably to stop the landing of the passengers.
On the steamer coming up, the rupondents and the pas-
sengen wen informed that their landing would not be per
This, however, was disregarded, and some of the
passengers forced their way on the pier and others threw
out the ropes by which to moor the vessel to the pier. The
parties guarding the pier refused to tie them, and threw the
ropes back again. This was followed by an attack on those
engaged in protecting the pier, accompanied by missiles, by
which several of them sustained injury. By force of num-
bers, the passengers effected a landiag, and immediately
commenced to destroy a barricade which had been greeted,
breaking the gangway and throwing the materials into the
sea. Oa the following Sunday, the complaiaer having in-
terposed certain mechanical obstructions to a landing, the
steamer proceeded to the old stone pier at Rowmore,
where a landing was effected. With the view to prevent
future landing at Rowmore, the complainer pat up a barri-
cade, but notwithstanding these precautions, a landing was
effected at Rowmore on Sunday the 4th September; a
portion of the louts were destroyed by the steamer on
its return, 'seine impelled purposely upon them.
On Sabbath, the 11th September, the steamer plied, for
the lint time, to the pier at Row, a pier also belonging to
the complainer. Here they wrenched out from the gate
with • crowbar four of the bars, =eking thus an opening
through which persons from the steamer passed on shore.
The steamer proceeded to Garelochhead, where, in viola-
tion of the rights of the complainer, she landed her pars
sengen at the wooden pier. Although no use then was
made of Rowmore pier in landing, parties from the steamer
proceeded to it and completely demolished the barricade
there, and set adrift • small boat which was fastened to the
pier. The complainer further averred that the landing of
the steamer was a souree of great annoyance to the parties
residing on the banks of the Gareloch, moat of whom had
(cued mansions on its banks in order to the enjoyment of
peace and quiet on the Sundays. It had thus a direct ten-
dency to depreciate the value of the complainer's estate.
The whole question thus took this simple form—was or was
it not a case of private property l But the conduct of the
defenders was alto an infraction of the statutes passed for
preserving the sacredness of the Sabbath, particularly the
acts of 1575 and 1450 ; and on these grounds he (Mr.
Patton) prayed the court to issue the interdict prayed for.
Mr. Young, for the defendants, denied that the Gare-
lochhesd pier was erected on private ground. If it was
erected on the public seashore, or on the public road, which
ran close to the sea, he apprehended that the party erecting
it was not entitled to exclude the public from it when he
thought proper. If there was no private property there
between the sea and the public road—and that was the re-
spondents' case—they held that a private individual was
not entitled, by throwing a private pier out from the
public road, so to prevent the public landing at that place.
lie might give them greater facilities for landing and em-
barking, but he was not entitled to exclude them, and ac-
cordingly they were prepard to establish that if the public
were to be excluded from that pier its existence would be
illegal, in so far as it would prevent steamers coming so
near the shore, as from time immemorial they had been
, enabled to do, in landing and embarking their passengen.
It Sir James Colguhoun was entitled to exclude the public
on Sundays be might do so on any day he chose. If, for
instance, he were an episcopalian he might shut
it on all the saints' days for which he had a peculiar
reverence. He (Mr. Young) presumed it was to prevent
the absurdity of going so far that he had introduced the
Sabbath profanation question ; and, without entering on
that, he (Mr Young) would merely say that he did not see
a sha low of title that the complainer had to ask an inter-
! dirt on benotthatr
groundi
Tadvocates having been beard, their lordships
' took the case ad admandion,—,Scotaisan.