British Claims On France.
The Times, 1824-10-02T00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. Sir,-The observations made in your paper a few days back, on the Commissioners for liqutidating British Clrirs oln France, brougbt to my recollection the carcustance that. I had an unsatisfied one on that Board, in consequence of wblch I went to their office, in Parliament-street, and having made kntown the object of my business, was shovn into a room appropriated for considering the BordeauX Claims. I was then informed that the time for receiving elaims had been closed ever since 1820, and nothing could now be done for me-I had neglected my owD affairs, and must abide by the consequence of that negligence. " Here," said the chief person in the office, handing l down a file of Gszcttes, "1 is a regular notice to that effect, and liere is an Act of Parliament bv whicb that notice is authorized. And further, (added lie), we have not now3 a sous in hand. I asked what documents it wcd d have been necessary for mne to produce, to establish the validity` of my claim, provided the time had not elapsed for so doing. His reply was, " the original invoice, or an attested. copy, and a proof of your being an Englishman: these, if they corresponded with the vouchers we have received from ., the French Goveinment, would have been sufficient." expressed my wisb that thip information had been given tO me when I called here several times very shortly after the commission was opened; bitt he rejoihed, ' tbev were here then to receive claims, not to m-ake there. This was very m ortifying for me, for T mnade the discoverv by it, how easily I might have proved my claim, if I had but known how to set about it; for he did me the honour tosayat thesame time tbat itwas a valiCtone. Irmade some further in- quiries,however,by which I found my loss wvas not so gratas I at first expected,for I found that the claimants only received between 80 and 90 per cent. of the British Commissioners, while those who madethe demand in Paris were paid in filL This anpeared to me verv strarge, as it will perhaps to when I tell you that tfse amount claimed of the French Govcrnment to satisfy the demands,was made up from do- cLiments furnished by it to the British Govertnent, and wlhat had been by the RBrdeaux authorities previously acknowledged and approved. How camne it, then, that a di- vidend wvas only paid, when the sum granted for this resnu- neration covered (or ought to have covered) the wbole amount? I do not mean to hint that any thing like unfairness was shown in the distribution of the fund, but I thit4k that the circumstance of only a ,iaend being paid whbn the undiminished ainoupt *Uj been acceined to by the Frcnch Government, is at&e least mysterious and requiring explanation; the muore espe- cially from the peculiar nature of the Bordeaux claims, whichi principallv arose from money actually paid into the French Exchequer, from the Customs at that place exact- ing the high duties. When the late King of France was made acquainted with the disappointment which the British mnerchants felt at the revocation, of that tariff which had been issued by the Duke d'Angeuleme, and. on the faith of 'which, by the by, they had embarked their property, at a time when the arch-enemv of his family was scarcely expelled from the throne of his ancee. tors by British and other bayonets, it caused him instantly to perceive the injustice of the procedure, an(d be imme- diately issued that " ordinance,' whilch declared that the " excess" of duty which had been taken ou colonial and other produce, on the authority of a tariff (mirabile dictu,) issuedl bv the Buonaparte Dynasty, should be returned ta the parties who had paid it; and'that all the charges that been incurred on the importation of manufactured goods should be reimbursed to the inmporters of them on their re- exportation. This liberal conducton the partof Louis XVIII. was perfectly satisfactorv to the merchants who had ventured their property into his l,ingdorn. Is it not therefore strange, that under such circumstances they should not have been paid in fuil, particularly as the demandIs on the funds in the hands of the British Commissioners had been so less- ened by tbeirrejection of claims theauthenticityof which had beeni satisfactory to the French Government? But I finid I have greatly trespassed on your time; and will conclude my remnarks on this Board by requesting it to publish a list of their unclaimed and unsatisfied demands. I am vouri. Se. _ I_ERCATOR. Uctober 1. ,.lBRr7'SaI cL-AIMS ON riuvr;;