The Sun.
London, England, 1848-06-14 00:00:00

THE REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA.

The following intelligence from Caracas will be
read with interest by all persons commercially con-
nected with the Republic of Venezuela. We under-
stand a❑ agent of the Venezuelan Government is at
the present moment in London, charged to negotiate
a loan of 240,0001.
The following address from British merchants
engaged in business with Caracas and La Guayra
was presented on the 25th of April to the British
Charge d'Affaires—a similar address was presented
on the 28th by the English merchants at Puerto
Cabello :

" Caracas, April 25, 1848.
" The undersigned British merchants, engaged in
business here and in La Guayra, have the honour of
addressing you as the representative of her Britannic
Majesty in Venezuela, for the purpose of soliciting your
attention to the law passed on the 21st instant, copy and
translation of which are annexed, for the issue of bonds
to the extent of 5,000,000 of dollars, the first article of
which they apprehend will have the most disastrous con-
sequences to their interests.
" It does not belong to them, as foreigners, to pass a
judgment on the policy of the measure in question, as
regards its bearings on the general welfare and prospe-
rity of this Republic; but they entertain the conviction
that the provisions of the first article attack the sanctity
of property, and are a manifest violation of the solemnity
of contracts made in virtue of, and in accordance with,
the laws of the country. It determines that payment of
debts, contracted in conformity with the law of the 10th
'of April, 1834 (copy and translation of which we ac-
company), may be made in the bonds to be issued by the
Government, secured on property, in most cases it may
be presumed, already mortgaged to the creditors, and
which, therefore, it is no longer within the power of the
debtor to load with fresh incumbrances. If the creditors
(and every British subject engaged in business is so) re-
fuse to accept them in satisfaction of their claim at the
nomieal value, it is left to the option of the debtor, within
the period of one year, to demand that time (espera) be
granted, or a reduction of the debt, one or other of which
to too determined by arbitration, in the manner
therein provided, which it is to be obligatory upon
the creditor to accept in all its consequences,
for the same article determines that the sen-
tence is without appeal. The advantages thus conferred
on the debtor are even greater than at first sight they
appear. Of the arbitrators one is sure to be his friend,
and when the umpire comes to be named, of course he
insists upon a person favourable to the interests he re-
presents being chosen, or the matter stands over, to the
injury of the creditor, who is thus kept out of his money,
by which the object of the debtor is attained; or, if
sentence be pronounced, it must be a modification of the
original engagement, and no modification can take place
that is not an immediate benefit to tbe debtor, for it is
here to be borne in mind, that the debtor has received,
under the original contract, full value for the amount of
his engagement.
No one ventures to hope that the bonds to be issued
by the law will be equal in value to those of the domes-
tic debt, which at present may be quoted at 40 per cent.
Few believe that it will reach the half of this price, and,
as the necessities of the planters, who thus burden their
prop-rties,and proclaim their pecuniary embarrassments,sue
compel them to force to sale at whatever sacrifice. _
e.hr
of these assigned to them as they may retain their
hands in order to obtain the means of carrying on cul-
tivation and even of support, it will be scarcely an ex-
aggeration to set down the probable money-value of this
paper at one-tenth or one-twelfth of that which it pro-
fesses to represent.
" With no inclination to advance aught that may be
deemed disrespectful to the institutions of this country,
after what has been stated above, they feel it incumbent
noon them to declare, that the manner in which the trt-
b-unal is constituted, which is to decide upon the value
of their claims, inspires in them no confidence. whatever,
and that they look upon its sentence as, in all cases, cer-
tain to favour the debtor at their expense.
'• The monstrous injustice of allowing the party who
has benefited in a contract, to seek to exempt himself
from the fulfilment of stipulations that are favourable to
the other, without both being restored to the position in
which each stood when the engagement was originally
entered into by appealing to the decision of arbitrators,
in the choice of whom the creditor, whose rights are ,
in-
vaded, possesses no security beyond that of the debtor
who his favoured in his attempts to deprive him of what
the law awarded, must be apparent to all, and will have
the attention at your hands which it so eminently de-
serves.
"If, therefore, the creditor is to be sacrificed, either
in the amount awarded, the indulgence granted, or the
way in which payment is made, what prospect short of
ruin awaits those who, in perfect confidence that the laws
would be observed and justice impartially administered,
have intrusted their own capital and that of others ou
guarantees, which now, by the retrospective character of
the proposed measure, are scandalously set aside or
shamefully evaded? The preservation of credit is im-
possible where the creditor is thus placed at the mercy
of the debtor; and the peculiar hardship and injustice
sought to be inflicted are the more apparent, when these
concessions to the one party, absolutely incapacitate the
other from the fulfilment of conditions towards the
public and the State, as in the case of custom-house
duties, &c., which are rigorously enforced. In the case
of the Colonial Bank, the retention of specie and the
conversion of its notes are obligatory, while the means
of doing so at all times must be provided by its debtors,
who nevertheless may appeal to the provisions of the
contemplated law, and require it to take bonds, or to
submit to an indefinite term for payment, awarded by a
tribunal whose sympathies would be, it is not too much
to say, in favour of those whose case, in all probability,
would soon a#ter be their own.
"This confiscation of property, by bringing transac-
tions legally completed, within the sphere of enactments
only now submitted to the executive in order to become
Jew, is confidently asserted to be a violation of the treaty
stipulations, and upon this ground your attention is
called to the Bth and 11th articles of the treaty with our
country, wherein it is provided that absolute freedom
shall be allowed in all cases to the buyer and seller to
bargain and fix the price of any goods, wares, and mer-
chandise,' and that their effects and property, whether
intrusted to individuals or to the state, shall not be
liable,' even in the time of war, to seizure or seques-
tration.' Much less is Venezuela, in the time of peace,
in virtue of the real or assumed distress of a compara-
tively small portion of its citizens, and those among the
higher and wealthier classes, to insist abruptly upon her
.Majesty's subjects surrendering their claims, and sub-
mitting to a confiscation of the fruit of their labour, and
possibly of property, fur the safety of which they are
responsible, invading the principle universally recog-
nised, that no law of posterior date can have a retro-
active eff. ct.
In virtue of the above considerations, arising out of
their situation generally, and the wide-spread misery
which must follow the sanction of the law by the Execu-
tive, the undersigned, being quite content to intrust the
conduct of this affair to your discretion, have to entreat
that, in the event of such a course meeting with your
approbation, you will take the earliest opportunity of
bringing the matter under the consideration of the Ve-
nezuelan Government, pointing out its dangerous ten-
dencies and palpable injustice, and stating, finally, that
if their friendly representations are disregarded, they are
prepared to protest, and to throw the consequences of
this violent proceeding on the Venezuelan Government,
calling, as they must then do, upon their own for re-
dress.
"Her Britannic Majesty's subjects have the most en-
tire confidence that their interests will find in you, as
they always have done, a zealous and able advocate' on
this occasion, and. the undersigned scarcely can contem-
plate the possibility of an emergency, wherein their in-
terests may be more extensively or deeply implicated,
nor one in which more flagrant injustice may be defeated.'
" With sentiments of the highest respect, we have
the honour to be, sir, your obedient humble servants,
(Signed)
" George Ward; L. Miranda, manager of the Co-
lonial Bank; W. Anderson; O'Callaghan and
Schimmel; Mocatta and Co.; Michael and Law-
rence O'Callaghan; J. Halle; Meyer and Ken-
nedy; A. Dunbar; Edward Thornbrough Har-
rison; Pp. L. Steinthal and Co.; J. Theodor; H.
J. Lord; Santiago M'Manus; L. B. Adams;
Miguel Ellul; Bartolo Boatante; Thomas W.
Filler; Gregor MacGregor; Robert J. Boulton;,
Pp. John Boulton ; G. K. Circowich; C. Chitty."
Mr. Wilson, Charge d'Affaires of her Britannic
Majesty, made the following reply :

"TO TIIF. BRITISH KEIICIIANTS AND BANKERS AT
CARACAS, LA GUAYRA, AND PUERTO CABELLO, ETC ,
ETC., ETC.

"British Legation, Caracas, April 28, 184 S.
" Gentlernen,—l have to-day had the honour of re-
ceiving your memorial dated the 25th instant, calling my
attention
.to a project of law for affording pecuniary
relief t) solvent Venezuelan landed proprietors at the
cost of their creditors and of the 'Venezuelan nation,

which project was on the 21st instant approved of by the
-Venezuelan Legislature, and has been sent up to the
Executive Government for its constitutional action.

"You complain of the hardship and injustice both o'
Ile provisions of the lag itself and of the attempt to
give to them a retroactive effect a ith prejudice to your
interests, and in violation of your rights in Venezuela
as British subjects; and you state, in conclusion, that
it 'such a measure of confiscation of the just fruits of
your labour be carried into effect, no prospect short of
;ruin will await you.
"I fully concur with you on all these points; and I
have, therefore, submitted a copy of your memorial and
of its enclosures to the Venezaelan Government, with
the expression of my confident hope and expectation
that it will adopt in this grave matter such a decision as
may be moat consistent with political integrity and in-
t.:rtiational good faith.
"I have to express to you my thanks for the terms in
winch you have been pleased to notice my constant en-
deayours, as in duty bound, to uphold the rights and
protect the interests of British subjects in Venezuela;
and to assure you that your declared confidence in the
continuance of those exertions will not on theresent,
_nor upon any other occasion, be disappointed. p
.‘ I have the
servant,
honour to be, Gentlemen, your most obe-
d lent humble
,6 BELFORD HINTON WILSON,
11. B. M. Charge d'Affaires."
p. ROJECT OF LAW FOR A TERRITORIAL
INSTITUTE.

46 Ile Senate and House of Representatives of the
Rel labile of Venezuela in Congress assembled:
" CONSIDERING:
" 1. That in consequence of former and recent causes,
the agriculture of Venezuela and all the other industriai
interests of the country have been, and are still, suffer-
ing in a t extraordinary manner, which is rendered
Inanifest in,. the decay and paralyzation of every kind of
labour, and the alarming docreas© in the transactions

generally.
" 2. That tb4e debts, which weigh principally on the