treasury can be established, as can bring these last within the cognizance of that tribunal.

Permit me to ask whether the supreme council of war has the faculty of ordering the treasurer general of Andalusia, to pay over the funds which Mr. Meade deposited with him, to such persons as the consulado of Cadiz may appoint to receive them?

If so, I will request your excellency to lay before that tribunal, the demand made in my last note, according to the practice in similar cases; but if the tribunal of war has no such faculty, then the order which I have requested, can be given, only by the executive government. My application for its interference was perfectly correct, and your excelleney's reference to the tribunal, is, as to any useful object perfectly nugatory, for Mr. Meade must necessarily be answered, that the tribunal has not any control over his majesty's treasury. I had flattered myself with a hope, that in our conference on the 5th inst. I had succeeded in convincing your excellency, that the case between Mr. Meade and Mr. M'Dermot, and that between Mr. Meade and his majesty's treasury were altogether distinct. I do not solicit any act of injustice against Mr. McDermot, and I ought to presume that it is his majesty's desire to do justice to Mr. Meade. In acceding to my demand in his favour, your excellency will accomplish that desire, and so far from impugning the claims of Mr. McDermot, the effect of the measure will be, to satisfy them by payment, and to extinguish all the processes to which they had given rise.

I do trust, then, on reconsidering the case, your excellency will perceive, that only two inquiries are necessary, viz. whether Mr. Meade did, by order of the consulado deposite the funds in question, with the treasurer general, and whether they yet exist in the hands of the treasurer. Of these facts, I have already laid before you indisputable proofs, in the papers marked No. 1, 2, 3, transmitted to you with my note of August 27th, viz.-No. 1. The order of the consulado, directing Meade to deposite. No. 2. The receipt of the treasurer general, for the deposite made. No. 3. The acknowledgment of the treasurer, that he holds said deposite in specie, subject to the orders of the consulado. It is for want of these funds, now, in his majesty's treasury, that Mr. Meade is in prison; the payment of them to the order of the consulado, will quiet all claims

and satisfy all parties, and will not interfere with the jurisdiction, or require the intermediation of any tribunal what

ever.

He recurs then to the king whose power to enforce is as indisputable, as his disposition to do right; and I, on his part, require only the plainest act of justice, when I demand that an express royal order be issued for his immediate liberation from prison, and for the payment of the funds deposited by him in the royal treasury of the province, to the consulado of Cadiz, or to such person as it may appoint to receive the same.

I renew, &c.

GEORGE W. ERVING.

No. 7.

Mr. Erving to Mr. Cevallos. Madrid, Oct. 25, 1816. SIR, By your excellency's note of the 17th inst. in reply to mine of September 26th, respecting the proclamation blockade of general Morillo, and the ravages on the American commerce which are committing under it, I am told that his majesty has ordered, that information shall be taken (se pidu informe) of the tribunal of admiralty.

That general Morillo has issued such a proclamation as I have described in my note of September 26th, is a fact of universal notoriety; your excellency has had before you long since, the correspondence between the American Secretary of State and Mr. Onis, on the subject, and I have transmitted to you a copy of the letter of Don Francisco Montalvo, viceroy of Santa Fe, to the American commissioner, Mr. Hughes, in which the existence of the blockade is admitted, and in which the American government is referred for redress to his catholick majesty. It was therefore that, by the orders of my government, I wrote to you on the subject. With the fact, which I have above stated before you, I am wholly at a loss to imagine what kind of information the tribunal of admiralty can afford, which may regulate the decision of his majesty on the subject.

The tribunal cannot deny the existence of the proclamation; it cannot show that the proclamation is legal; it cannot deny that American vessels have been taken under the proclamation; it cannot contest the right of the American government to demand the restitution of such vessels.

In fine, sir, it is my duty to assure you, that any demur or delay in affording the satisfaction demanded in a case

of this principal importance, cannot but be very sensibly felt by the government of the United States.

I renew, &c.

GEORGE W. ERVING.

No. 8.

Don Jose Pizarro to the Minister of the United States. Palace, Nov. 7, 1816.

SIR, I have laid before his majesty your note of the 21st of last month, in which you insist that the sums deposited by Mr. R. Meade in the royal treasury, should be paid over to the tribunal of commerce of Cadiz, or to whomsoever it may authorize to receive them. This affair appertaining to the ministry of the treasury, his majesty has been pleased to determine that your said note be transmitted to the secretary of that department, that through his channel it may again be submitted to his majesty's decision. I renew, &c. JOSE PIZARRO.

No. 9.

Extract of a Letter from Mr. Erving to the Secretary of State, dated Madrid, May 12, 1817.

"By my despatches, Nos. 20, 23, 26, I had the honour to submit to you copies of the first part of my correspondence with the Spanish secretary of state, on the case of Richard W. Meade. As that gentleman despairing of the success of my efforts in his favour desires that the whole of his case may be laid before you, I now transmit copies of all the notes, which have passed on it since the month of November."

No. 10.

Mr. Erving to Mr. Pizarro. Madrid, Dec. 25, 1816. SIR, On the 7th November, your excellency replied to my note of 21st October, on the case of R. W. Meade, an American citizen, in prison at Cadiz, that you had transmitted the same to the minister of Hacienda, that the royal resolution might be given through that ministry. In consequence, as I presume, of your excellency's communication to the minister of Hacienda, Mr. Navaretti, the treasurer general, wrote to the consulado of Cadiz, on the 19th November; the answer of that tribunal is dated on the 29th November. It is completely satisfactory and in

perfect accord with what I have stated to you on the case. Why a copy of it has not been already transmitted to you, I will not undertake to conjecture; but seeing that this document, as well as others in the cause, do virtually confess, that the proceedings against Mr. Meade are of the unjust and violent character, which I have attributed to them, and that every unnecessary delay is an augmentation of the injustice, as I ought to believe, and am persuaded, entirely contrary to the disposition of his majesty. For these reasons, I pray your excellency to demand from the minister of Hacienda a copy of Mr. Navaretti's aforesaid correspondence with the consulado, and to lay it, in conjunction with my representations, before his majesty. GEORGE W. ERVING.

No. 11.

Mr. Erving to Mr. Pizarro. Madrid, March 14, 1817. SIR,-In a note of September 16, 1816, to your excellency's predecessor I required that the treasurer general of the district of Cadiz, should be ordered to pay, to such person as the consulado of Cadiz should appoint to receive the same, a certain sum of money, which had been deposited with said treasurer, by R.W. Meade, an American citizen, in obedience to an order of said consulado, and for which sum said Meade then was, as he still is held, in prison.

Having been answered by Mr. Cevallos generally, that the affair of Mr. Meade was before the council of war, I insisted on my former demand, (in a further note of October 21,) showing to the minister, that it had no necessary connexion with any process depending before the council of war; and further, that it was not possible for the council to satisfy my reclamation, even if it should be disposed to do so, because it had no faculty to give such orders to his majesty's treasurer, as I had desired.

In answer to that note, your excellency was pleased to inform me on the 7th November, that as my demand related to the duties of the minister of Hacienda, his majesty had resolved, that my note of 21st October, should be passed to that minister, to the end that through that department, the royal resolution should be given. "Se pasa la citada nota al senor secretario de dicho departamiento para que por su conducto recayga la real resolucion."

In consequence (I presume) of this measure, the treasurer general, Senor Navaretti, wrote to the consulado of Cadiz, on the 19th November, requiring that tribunal to inform him particularly as to the aforesaid deposite. The consulado replied to the treasurer on the 29th November, that the deposite had been made by its order, that it had been made" ineffective," (" en libramientos de plata effectiva,") that it existed at the treasury, and that the treasurer had made himself responsible to the said consulado, for the amount.

I annex to this note, a copy of that most important correspondence between the treasurer and the consulado, (marked A,) and which your excellency was pleased also to procure a copy of, from the minister of Hacienda, pursuant to the request contained in my note of December 25.

This correspondence leaves not the least doubt as to the nature of the deposite, or its actual existence; and I assured myself, that it was all that could be desired, and that it must necessarily produce an immediate order for the release of Mr. Meade from prison. I am therefore much surprised to find, that the affair, instead of having been despatched, as I understood by your excellency's note of November 7, that it would be, has again fallen. back into the hands of the council of war, which tribunal, as before observed, cannot have any control over the operations of his majesty's treasury.

If the council of war should enter into any inquiry as to the nature of the deposite, can the result, whatever it may be, of that inquiry, be opposed to the complete, plain, unequivocal declaration of the consulado of Cadiz, the very tribunal, by order of which the deposite was made, which is most interested to ascertain its nature, and its actual existence? But in no view can it be of the least importance in considering, or should it have the least influence in deciding upon my reclamation, whether the deposite is, or is not satisfactory to the council of war; and therefore, I will not here enter into its past and present proceedings, or will I advise Mr. Meade to appear before that tribunal, to prove any thing, which may relate to the nature of that deposite. It is sufficient that the deposite was made by the order of the consulado; that it was paid into his majesty's treasury, and is now there. All this is proved by the confession of the consulado, itself; and I cannot acknowledge the justice of any plea for holding Mr. Meade