"The undersigned has the honour to request the marquis d'Eyragues to communicate this note to his Court, and to accept, &c.

"VERSTOLK VAN SOELEN." (The same answer has been given to Mr. Jerningham.)

EMBARGO ON DUTCH VESSELS. "At the Court at St. James's, the 6th day of November, 1832; present the King's Most Excel lent Majesty in Council"It is this day ordered by his majesty, by and with the advice of his privy council, that no ships or vessels belonging to any of his majesty's subjects be permitted to enter and clear out for any of the ports within the dominions of the king of the Netherlands until further orders.

"And his majesty is further pleased to order that a general embargo or stop be made of all ships and vessels whatsoever belonging to the subjects of the king of the Netherlands now within, or which shall hereafter come into, any of the ports, harbours, or roads, within any part of his Majesty's dominions, together with all persons and effects on board such ships and vessels. And that the commanders of his majesty's ships of war do detain and bring into port all merchant ships and vessels bearing the flag of the Netherlands; but that the utmost care be taken for the preservation of all and every part of the cargoes, on board any of the said ships or vessels, so that no damage or embezzlement whatever be sustained; and the commanders of his majesty's ships of war are hereby instructed to detain and bring into port every such ship and vessel accordingly.

"And the right honourable the lords commissioners of his majesty's Treasury, the lords com missioners of the Admiralty, and the lord warden of the Cinque Ports, are to give the necessary directions herein as to them may respectively appertain."

"At the Court at St. James's, the 3rd day of December, 1832; present the King's Most Excellent Majesty in Council.

"It is this day ordered by his majesty in council, that his majesty's order in council of the 6th of November last, directing that no ships or vessels belonging to any of his majesty's subjects be permitted to enter and clear out for any of the ports within the dominions of the king of the Netherlands until further orders, shall not extend, or be construed to extend, to prevent any ship or vessel belonging to his majesty's subjects from entering and clearing out for any ports or places in the possession of, or belonging to, his majesty the king of the Netherlands in the East or West-Indies, or in Africa or America, but that all such ships and vessels shall be permitted to enter and clear out for the ports and places aforesaid, as they might have done before the date of the said order:

"And the right honourable the lords commissioners of his majesty's Treasury, the lords commissioners of the Admiralty, the lord warden of the Cinque Ports, and the judge of the high court of Admiralty, are to give the necessary directions herein as to them may respectively appertain.

"C. C. GREVIlle.”

"At the Court at St. James's, the 3rd day of December, 1832; present, the King's Most Excellent Majesty in Council.

"It is this day ordered by his majesty in council, that all vessels under Dutch colours, having cargoes on board consisting of perishable articles, and which shall have been, or hereafter may be, detained under the embargo laid by his majesty's order in council of the 6th of November last, or that have been, or may hereafter be, sent in by any of his majesty's ships of war in pursuance of such order, be forthwith released, and that all such vessels with their cargoes, consisting of perishable articles as aforesaid, shall be permitted to proceed on their respective voyages: "And the right honourable the lords commissioners of his majesty's Treasury, the lords commissioners of the Admiralty, the lord warden of the Cinque Ports, and the judge of the high court of Admiralty, are to give the necessary directions herein as to them may respectively appertain,

"C. C. GREVILLE."

reason which can give ground for such a refusal, and not knowing of any cause of complaint, or any reclamation capable of impairing in any manner the amicable relations existing between the Netherlands and Great Britain, as well with respect to their policy as their commerce, the undersigned takes the liberty to apply to his excellency lord Palmerston, requesting him to afford him some explanation of the measure which has just been taken at the London Customhouse relative to ships bound to the Netherlands. The undersigned embraces this opportunity, &c.

"W. G. DEDEL.

"To M. Dedel, &c.

"Foreign-office, Nov. 7. "The undersigned, his majesty's principal secretary of state for foreign affairs, has the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the note addressed to him this day by M. Dedel, his Netherland majesty's minister at this court, and in reply has the honour to enclose a copy of an order in council which has just been published, by which M. Dedel will find that he was under a mistaken impression relative to the directions which have been issued on the subject of vessels clearing out from British ports for ports within the dominions of his majesty the king of the Netherlands. The undersigned, &c.

"PALMERSTON.

(Here follow the Orders in Council dated the 6th of No

"To his Excellency Lord Vis

count Palmerston.

"London, Nov. 8. "The undersigned minister plenipotentiary of his majesty the king of the Netherlands has the honour to acknowledge to his ex

count Palmerston.

"The directions contained in this order are, in fact, but little in accordance with the exalted ideas which, during a residence of many years in England, the undersigned had conceived of the magnanimity and moderation of the British Government; but as lord Palmerston has not thought fit to give to the undersigned the explanations which he had allowed himself to ask of him respecting measures which seem so contrary to the intimate and amicable relations existing between the Netherlands and Great Britain, it remains only for the undersigned to transmit this document to his government, and to wait for his orders.

"He embraces, &c.
"W. G. DEDEL.

"To M. Dedel, &c.

Foreign-office, Nov. 8.

"The undersigned, his majesty's principal secretary of State for foreign affairs, has the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the note addressed to him by M. Dedel, his Netherland majesty's minister at this court, and in reply the undersigned begs leave to inform M. Dedel, that after the communications which have recently taken place between the two governments, it appears to him to be wholly unnecessary to enter into any further explanation with respect to the measures announced to M. Dedel in the note from the undersigned of yesterday's date. The undersigned has the honour, &c.

"PALMERSTON.

"London Nov 18. (M. Dedel, acknowledging the receipt of Lord Palmerston's note of the 8th of November, proceeds.)

"The undersigned, having transmitted the above note to his Court, is instructed to observe, that that of the minister for foreign Affairs of the Netherlands to the chargé d'affaires of his Britannic majesty at the Hague, of the 2nd of November, having contained a complete answer to Mr. Jerningham's note of the 29th of October,

no

farther communication has given grounds for the embargo the English government has just laid on the ships of the Netherlands.

"In this state of things, the undersigned has received orders to protest, in the most formal manner, as he does by this present note, against this measure, which by the law of nations is incompatible with the security and respect due to the navigation of friendly powers; and to demand from the justice of the English government, and from its regard for the law of nations, the immediate revocation of the embargo just laid on the Netherland vessels, which, confiding in the faith of treaties, are in the ports of England, as well as the revocation of the orders issued to detain at sea those sailing under the Netherlands' flag.

"The Netherlands' government reserves its rights to an equitable indemnity for the losses which this embargo and those orders shall have caused to its subjects.

"Obliged on its part to use reprisals, it has limited them to sending away from its ports within a stated time the English vessels, and not to admit those which may intend to come to them. It is

CORRESPONDENCE between the RIGHT HON. EARL GREY and his EXCELLENCY BARON VAN ZUYLEN VAN NYEVELT. Downing-street, Nov. 11, 1832. Lord Grey having lost no time in laying before the cabinet (namely, the Prussian projects with the memorandum of the Baron) the papers left with him by the baron Zuylen de Nyevelt on Friday last, has the honour to inform his excellency that they do not appear to his majesty's government to afford the means of an immediate and satisfactory settlement of the questions so long depending between the Netherlands and Belgian go

vernments.

The proposal now made by the baron Zuylen de Nyevelt, though it may appear to make some approach towards more equitable terms than the government of the Netherlands has hitherto been willing to admit, in fact, contains nothing more than an offer to accept as the basis of negotiation the project delivered at the Hague by the plenipotentiary of Prussia, and is not, in some of its terms, in accordance with that project, which itself, upon an examination of its details, appeared, in some, to be exposed to positive objections, and in others, to furnish many grounds of difficulty and doubt, requiring further explanation and discussion.

Thus, nothing appears certain in this new proposal except further delay, which the present state of affairs will no longer admit.

It was from a sense of the danger

arising from this state of uncertianty, which has already kept Europe too long in anxiety and suspense, that after the failure of their assiduous and patient endeavours in a protracted negotiation of two years to avert so painful a necessity, the governments of Great Britain and France at last found themselves reluctantly compelled to resort to the measures which are now in progress for the execution of the treaty of the 15th of November, 1831.

Still equally anxious to effect an amicable adjustment of the matters in dispute, his majesty's government would willingly listen to any propositions which might lead to that desired result. But, bound by its engagements to the Belgian government, and having, in concert with France, commenced a course of action which it cannot propose to suspend, unless the security demanded from Holland, in the note delivered to the Hague by the British and French plenipotentiaries, shall have been first obtained, lord Grey has only to repeat to the baron Zuylen de Nyevelt what he has already had the honour of stating to his excellency in person-that the surrender of the citadel of Antwerp, with its dependencies, must now be considered as an indispensable preliminary to any further negotiation.

Lord Grey begs the baron Zuylen de Nyevelt to accept the renewed assurances of his high esteem and consideration.

London, Nov. 12, 1832. My lord,-Your lordship will readily believe in the painful impression made on me by the letter which you did me the honour to address to me on the 11th instant, and by which I learn, with deep

regret, the refusal of the English government to conclude for the present the treaty in the mode transmitted to your excellency on the 9th ult., together with my written explanations.

Your excellency considers that in my propositions there was nothing certain but new delays. Permit me to combat an accusation which certainly in the present crisis would be a serious one if it were true. Your excellency supposes that I had offered the project of the cabinet of Berlin as the basis of a negotiation. Pardon me, my lord, I said expressly, accept it as the basis of a treaty, no longer to be negotiated, but to be signed within twenty-four hours, should all the parties interested be equally anxious to come to a conclusion. It appears to me, my lord, that I could not express myself more frankly, nor more correctly.

The project of the cabinet of Berlin, otherwise so complete, left a few points in blank, which would have been easily settled by means of a few hours' discussion, and which, consequently, it did not belong to me alone to decide upon. But, exclusive of the time which would have been required to arrive at a common agreement as to the arrangement of the treaty, what, my lord, were the objects which, on our part, could have led to delays? Was it the question of the Scheldt? You know, my lord, that as soon as the British ministry made it an European question, my cabinet, although surprised at seeing mediators occupying themselves with their own interests, declared itself disposed to accept all that the cabinet of Berlin had proposed in this respect. There remained nothing but to agree as to the VOL. LXXIV.

amount of the tolls, which we wished to fix at three florins per ton. This consent and the proposition of my cabinet were communicated to the Conference on the 26th of October, and were the next day, the 27th, the object of my conversation with your lordship. You consider, my lord, this rate of three florins as too high. From that instant, desirous of securing to ourselves the imposing suffrage of the chief of the government of his Britannic majesty, I employed all my zeal, and succeeded in inducing my cabinet to authorize me to diminish the rate; and I thought I had done all that was required in giving you, my lord, on the 9th ult. an assurance to that effect, verbally and in writing.

Is it the question of the transit by Limburg? In that same Conference of the 27th of October your lordship did not attack on the ground of principle the exigency of the droits modérés; you contented yourself with proposing the cession of a territorial line to the south of Maestricht, which, giving to the Belgians the means of forming a commodious road, would content them as to any arbitrary increase of our tariff of transit. Being of opinion, my lord, that this point should be left to the respective commissioners of demarcation, I seized your idea with eagerness, and obtained the necessary consent in order to insure commerce against any new rise of the said tariff, and of this I was happy to give your excellency an assurance on the 9th ult., verbally and in writing.

In this state of affairs, Great Britain, whom from my childhood I have learnt to consider as our most faithful ally, repulses the wish for peace, and adjourns the discussion of it until after the 2 B