the population and property of the Colony, but to which even in the Articles enumerated I think it might be fair to add one fourth, as it must be obvious to Your Lordship there must be many omissions, great classes of people connected with the Civil and Military Departments not being included, property in itself, such as the Goods, Wares and Merchandizes in the Shops and Warehouses, the plate, the furniture, agricultural instruments, shipping of the Colony, are not enumerated, and it is not perhaps overrating the value of these Articles to estimate them at a fourth part of the whole Colonial wealth. I am thus particular in calling Your Lordship's attention to the amount of the property of the Colony and to its revenues to shew how inadequate the circulating medium is to its wants and necessities. They who possess money have certainly great advantages in their transactions either in treating with the Individuals or the persons drawing bills of exchange for the use of the army or the navy. From long habit of distrust private credit is as yet hardly a resource nor is there any general punctuality in payment, except those due to the Vendue Master. The consequence of keeping up their credit at Vendue Sales is almost as great here as it is to a Merchant in Europe not to commit an act of Bankruptcy and I cannot give a more convincing proof of the general want of money than the fact I quoted that the former Vendue Masters received ten per Cent upon the discount of every Vendue Bill even if it had but a week to run. After all the information I have been able to collect and lay before Your Lordship I consider either as direct revenue or as a powerful Instrument of promoting great Interests to which private exertions are unequal, that it is my duty to propose to Your Lordship to augment the paper money of the Colony to Three Million Rixdollars gradually at the discretion of the Governor for the time being and by sums not exceeding 500,000 Rixds. and to apply it all in such Loans on mortgage thro' the Lombard Bank, such discounts or such public works as would in the case of its restoration liquidate the claims arising out of its creation and in the interim would enable His Majesty more fairly to understand. the capabilities of this most valuable Colony. I have &c. (Signed) CALEDON. 1. British Goods in British Ships Duty free. 5 per Cent. 7 per Cent. 15 per Cent. 5 per Cent. Duty free. Indian Produce. 1. By British Ships from any part of India or the Eastward, on prime Cost 2. By Neutrals from a foreign Settlement (supposing a permission to be granted) 3. Prize Goods, supposing them to be sold here. under peculiar circumstances for consumption, upon the Sale Price thereof 4. Indian Articles imported here from England in British Ships. 5 per Cent. 15 per Cent. 10 per Cent. 7 per Cent. 1. If exported by the East India Company or by 5 per Cent. 5 per Cent. Tariff of Fees and Expenses to be charged at the Custom House. For a Permit to import or export Merchandize Do. for Sea Stores, Baggage and other Trifles Manifest Pass for a Vessel trading on the Coast 2 0 Clearance of Ships. Do. Coasting Vessel [Copy.] Letter from VICE ADMIRAL BERTIE to the EARL OF CALEDON. Oxford TRANSPORT, TABLE BAY, October 17th, 1809. MY LORD,-Adverting to the dispatches Your Lordship has received from His Majesty's Governor of Ceylon, and on the subject of which Your Excellency has been pleased to confer and communicate with me, and fully aware as I am of their nature and the important consequences attached to them, I am earnestly solicitous to render Your Excellency every assistance in carrying the most speedily into effect your intentions of sending a Military Force to India, so far as relates to the Men of War and Transports that may be required for the occasion. But as I have strong and specific Instructions to employ my whole Force in the Blockade of the Mauritius, I am not at liberty to divert any part of it from that object without an especial requisition from Your Excellency, by which it shall appear that the services of them demanded are of such importance to His Majesty's Interests as shall be my compleat justification for the adoption of the measure, and this is still more expedient as from the information communicated by me to their Lordships on the subject of the Mauritius, it is not an improbable inference to deduce that steps will be (should they not already have been) taken for offensive operations against that Colony, in the event of which a calculation will be made on the effective cooperation of the Naval Force on this Station, both as it respects the Ships of War and Transports. It is necessary that Your Excellency should be apprized that from the present orders of the Squadron I do not calculate on the return of any Ship of War into port before the month of January next (with the exception of the Charwell). I have at the same time indirectly understood that the Magicienne was on her way here to be placed under my command, but as from that statement she should have arrived nearly a month since, there are strong grounds to suppose her destination has been altered. I inclose for the information of Your Excellency a statement of the Transport Tonnage on the station, with the disposition and probable period of arrival of the vessels absent, and I have to add that it will be indispensably necessary that I should shortly send a further supply of Bread to the Blockading Squadron, to enable them to continue the allotted period on the cruising ground. Before I conclude this detail, it is my duty to observe to Your Excellency that any Ships dispatched now cannot go into Madras Roads and also that any Vessel sailing from hence in November will have to cross the track of the Hurricanes during the Season they are most frequent in their fatal effects. I need make no comment to Your Excellency, at the same time I do not wish to be understood that Ships may not pass in safety. The many points which this letter embraces being intimately connected with the objects proposed to be carried into effect by Your Excellency will, I am persuaded, induce Your Excellency justly to appreciate the motives by which it is detailed. Letter from the EARL OF CALEDON to VICE ADMIRAL BERTIE. CASTLE OF GOOD HOPE, 17th October 1809. SIR,-I have this moment been honored by your letter of this day's date, and tho' desirous of paying by due reflexion every respect and deference to such suggestions as you may be pleased to favor me with, yet having in concurrence with the Commander of the Forces deemed it wise to send forward a body of Troops to India for the purpose of assisting the legal Government of that Country, I cannot consider any measure against which such a resolution may militate otherwise than as a secondary consideration. Acting upon this principle I do not hesitate in thus formally requesting your assistance and cooperation, a request which from our Conversation yesterday without the receipt of your letter this morning I should have thought superfluous. Allow me Sir to make this observation upon the expediency of the step I am taking as relating to the Blockade of the Mauritius. Of what consequence, of what utility can the Isles of France be to Great Britain if she loses her Empire in the East, but in |