The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-15 00:00:00

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SUN OFFICE, Seven o'Clock

SP AIVISH BONDHOLDERS' ASSO-
CIATION.—(THIS DAY.)
A mee Ling of the Spanish bondholders convened by
this. Min' tiation waa held to-day, at the London Tavern,
to reeei' se a communication from the association's agent
atMad rid, Mr. James Henderson, respecting the settle-
enent ' of the claims of the bondholders.
D'IZIPSTER HEMMING, Esq., the chairman of the asso-
cie.ion, was voted to the chair, and said that under
ordinary circumstances he should have felt great reluc-
tance in taking the chair, but he considered himself then
itsefore the meeting in a double ca-pacity, not only as the
tresent chairman, but as the chair-elan of the Spanish Bond-
olders' Association. In the latter capacity he was
delighted to have an oppeatunity of affording the share-
holders some explanation. how that association orieinated,
and why it was subjecte,d to the imputation of being self-
constituted. In last Jelly this association was constituted.
Before that associrat,loe was formed a committee existed,
but no sooner ciSS the horizon in Spanish politics clear
and the affairs c,t the bondholders begin to amend, than
that committsee began to relax its efforts and retrograde,
and it at ',est became effete. They (the association)
bad commanications with several influential merchants
in the Ciey, and the expediency of having a body of
gene:Wiesen who might communicate with the Spanish
Gives/assent, and give the result of such communication
to the bondholders, was admitted, and the nresent as-
wsciation was then formed. It was then deemed
-necessary to send an agent to Madrid. They
had sent a memorial to Senor Mon, but no re-
sponse having been received to that communication, in
order to give greater effect to their effsrts they had
united with the bondholders of Belgium and France, and
they had an interview with M. Guizot, who gave them a
recoramendtrion to 31 Bresson. Fortified with that
letter, Mr. Henderson proceeded to Madrid, and it was
only justice to him to state that he had done all in his
power to adjust the affairs of the bondholders. The
Government of Spain, he was satisfied, were anxious to
revive the credit of the country by settling with foreign
creditors. He was sure they wanted the power, and not
the will, to carry out their wishes ; and it was to that
they • must attribute the debts of the bondholders not
being liquidated before.
Mr. CAPEL here stated that one of the committee had
expended no less than lesool. in endeavours to arrange
the affairs of the company.
The SECRETARY then read the letter from Mr. Hen-
aerates of the 2d of July, which has already been pub-
lished.
Mr. E. LUDO proposed that the committee be consti-
tuted as the representatives of the bondholders.
Mr. Maaore seconded the resolution, which was car-
ried unanimously.
Thanks having been voted to the chairman and the
other members of the committee,
Mr. W. HENDERSON read a letter from Lord George
Bentinc',E, and in an eloquent speech proposed a vote of
thanks to his Lordship, which was seconded, and carried
Una nimously.
9.'he letter was as follows:

"Harcourt House, July 13, 1847.
"'Dear Sir,—You are at perfect ltherty to declare any
wh Dr, 3 in my name, that if Lord Palmerston fails or pro-
crastinates in demanding and procuring redress for the
British holders of Spanish bonds, I will again, if I live,
bring the matter before the House of Commons. I think
it, 'however, only justice to Lord Palmerston to say that
all his previous conduct in forcing redress from Portugal,
New Granada, and Venezuela point him out, of all the
statesmen who have ever held the seals of the Foreign-
office, as the man in whom the British holders of foreign
bonds have the best right to place confidence that he will
fearLessly and firmly seek and obtain payment of their
just debts.
"Lord Palmerston's heart is evidently with the British
creditors of foreign repudiating and non-paying states ;
and it is clear that Lord Palmerston only requires to be
properly backed up by the representatives ot the empire,
to take effectual measures to obtain for all British holders
of foreign bonds punctual payment of their interest by
all nations who have not the excuse of poverty, insol-
vency, and bond fide inability to pay.
I's Practically, then, it rests with the British holders
.of Spanish and other bonds now, when on the eve of a
general election, to rouse constituencies from the north
of Scotland to the Land's End, and from Harwich to
Galway, to call upon . their representatives, or rather
upon the candidates on the hustings, to pledge themselves
to support Lord Palmerston, in demanding and securing
the immediate and punctual payment of the interest upon
all the debts due by solvent national Governments to the
subjects of Great Britain.
" Lord Palmerston has stated the aggregate principal
of the Foreign Debi due to British subjects at one
hundred and fifty millions sterling ; at three and a half
per cent. interest this would give upwards of five mil-
lions a year of interest due by foreign nations, and un-
paid to British subjects.
"This is a sum nearly equal to the property and
income-tax ; it is an annual sum to be paid to England
in 'foreign gold,' nearly equal to that drain of 'English
gold,' in payment for foreign erain, which, in the months
of April and May last, created such a panic and such a
pressure on the money-market.
"Had these • sasz ' foreign National Debtors, as
Lord Palmerston has justly designated them, been
!WREST instead of BASE,' the DRAIN of sex
MILLIONS of GOLD in payment for foreign grain,
would have been within ONE MILLION STERLING COUR-
T:ERVAILED by the cash payments in discharge of the
annual interest of these foreign debts, and there could
have been no pressure in the money-market, no obstacles
to the liberal discounts of the bank—no distress amongst
fair, honest, enterprising English merchants and manu-
facturers.
" Let the people of England remember that they to
whom these' Spanish thieves' owe an annual interest of
upwards of one million six hundred thousand pounds
sterling, pay every year for the slave-grown sugars and
coffee, and slave-raised copper of Cuba and Porto Rico,
a sum fully greater than this, mostly in English gold,
the bard-earnings of honest English industry, to
these very Spaniards • and then let them ask
the candidates for their suffrages, whether, if
returned to Parliament, they will suffer any longer
this barefaced robbery to continue ; let the people ot
England ask the candidates for their votes, if they will
tamely and basely connive at the longer continuance of
this Spanish freebooting, at the expense of the hard
horny hands, and exhausted sweat of English labour
amd English honesty.
" Will they suffer this, in order that the Queen of
Portugal and her profligate Court, and et more prOfil-
gme Ministers, may continue to revel in a lavish extra-
vagance, and a wasteful expenditure, greater by one-half
than that which contents the wants, and maintains the
dignity of our own Queen, the greatest Sovereign of the
earth ?
" Will the people of England be content any longer
to look quietly upon Cuba.and Porto Rico, producing in
value upwards of ten millions sterling of produce an-
nually on the one side—and on the unpaid debt of
forty-six millions due by Spain to British subjects
on the other side—Cuba and Porto Rico, AT ONCE SO
RICH and so EASY A PRIZE, and FORBEAR LONGER TO
DISTRAIN UPON THE GOODS OF THEIR WEALTHY, their
faithless, their unprincipled Spanish debtors ?
" Finally, I repeat that the battle rests now with the
British bondholders, to be fought by them on the hust-
ings. Though my political opponent, I think they
ought to have confidence in Lord Palmerston ; but if
the British bordholders,do their duty to themselves and
to Lord Palmerston, and Lord Palmerston should never-
theless disappoint their just expectations, then, I say,
you will know where to look for one who, in what he
known to be a just cause, will neither flatter nor flinch,
deceive, desert, or betray, in your faithful servant,
" G. BENTINCK.
" To Wm. Henderson, Esq."
Thanks were then voted to Lord Palmerston and
Lord Brougham, after which the meeting separated.