The Sun.
London, England, 1824-04-03 00:00:00

TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR—Be so good as insert the inclosed. Yogr
Paper having taken up the affair before any
other, is looked to with intense anxiety.
Your's,

TO DON MANUEL .TOSE HURTADO.
Sur—The very sudden and unexpected manner in which you
have adjusted the long agitated question, concerning the late
Mr. Zea's Loan, seems to call for some observations, which I
think you will not find foreign to the subject.
last, The
to
which Decree
yoofo
allude
t he Conignr eysosuorf
advertisementColoin bia of tohfe
to-day,
y,J,11,r ~e
nee.
probated in the strongest and most unqualified terms all the
financial transactions of the late Mr. Zea, and stated in the
most explicit manner that it disavowed and disowned them:
that he, Mr. Zea, had been guilty of many
misrepresentatil
with regard to the resources of the Colombian Governmen,
particularly that part of them arising from the revenue of
Mines,. it went on to affirm that Commissioners would be al'
pointed to examine into the state of all transactions connected
hold
dh
itself
lf,opal
end in question,
todiscl
aarfgtee,r whichnot tll
e thefictt4i
toi voeursn
Bondsment would
o°l.td,
late Plenipotentiary, but all that could be proved to have bet.,n,
transmitted either as remittances, munition of war, ship
stores, or other effects.
Such, Sir, is, I believe, the sum and substance of this fitnlolls,
decree, which the Congress of Colombia published to the world
while it entrusted to the Executive the mode, the mere manner+.
of its being carried into effect; and in your advertisement 0'
to-day, dated within a fortnight of your arrival in this countrY,
you notify " that all the holders of the Bonds, issued by the
late Hon. F. A. Zea, in virtue of a Loan contracted by hi m
&c., may receive in lieu thereof, Bonds signed by yourself,
virtue of the special power vested in you for that purpose,
the Government of Colombia, founded on the decree of the COrtl:
gress of 313th June last, &c." Now, Sir, did you come to tru:
isi untry as a Commissioner to investigate claims, or did i°`:
not? If you did, you have been rash and precipitate in
decision,—if you did not, why did you not publish the object
of your mission immediately upon your arrival ? I cannot sue'
pose it possible that you had any stock-jobbing purposes t°
answer; but I must say, with all respect, that appearances are
very much against you. If you have failed to profit by the
opportunity yourself, you must by disclosures in conversation.
have afforded it to others, who might be sufficiently adept 13
gambling to have availed themselves of it ; and I must sad'
that you owe it to yourself personally—to your country politi-
cally—and to Messrs. Herring, Graham, and Powles,
col-
lectively and individually, to publish your reasons for 700'
very extraordinary conduct.
So much, Sir, for the manner in which the late Mr. Zdo
Loan has been recognized. A few words now upon the Folic,'
and veracity of your Government. When first the intelligence
of the late Mr. Zea's financial transactions reached Colombia,
though the sacrifice would have been great, it would have been
wise to have recognized the Loan at once, with all its imper-
fections on its head, in order to shew the
world that your 60-
vernment was determined in its infancy to establish the invio-
lability of its faith ; but it chose a different course, and the
Congress published a Decree, which annulled and denied al:
the financial acts of its late Minister, which personally abuse"
him, and deprived the holders of hia Bonds of any expectation
beyond their legal claims.
Such was the policy of your Government-=such the value it
placed upon those Bonds which you have this day recognized
in the fullest and most unqualified manner; and what, Sir,
can you say to those unfortunate individuals, whose only
fault was to rely upon the veracity of your Government,
and who, taking it at its word, preferred realizing forty or
fifty per cent. rather than endure a further sacrifice ?",
Sir, I will fearlessly tell you, that they have been tti°'`
wantonly wronged ; they have claims upon its justice, which. :
as a rising country, it cannot deny ; and difficult indeed will
be the negoeiation of any new Loan, while the circumstances
to which I have alluded continue to remain unexplained.
that
One word more : I have good authority foe believing
you yourself in reply to a querist upon the subject of the ]auto
Mr. Zea's Loan, made use of the following expression :---
" How can you expect that I can confirm this Loan, which was
for ten millions of dollars, when my Government only receive'
one ?" This, Sir, you must deny or acknowledge.
I have the honour to remain,
Your obediOent servant,
AN EX-HOLDER OF CLOMBIA.N BONDS"
London, April 2, 1824.