Gazette Of The United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser

BOSTON, Oct. 2.

LETTERS FROM LONDON.

"August 2, '97."

From Mr. Bayard, the American commercial agent in London. "After many exertions, and much patient attendance, at Doctors Commons, and the Treasury, I have at length been able to obtain compensation from the British government, for losses sustained, by many of our fellow citizens, for the capture and detention of their vessels, in that class of cases, called cases of costs and damages. I received the last Saturday, £34,443, 8s. 5d. sterling."

The decisions made by the board, appointed under the commissioners for American claims, have, in the instance alluded to in the above letter of Mr. Bayard's, and in every other, been ample and satisfactory; and in no case, has the American commercial agent been under the necessity of appealing from their judgment, a right invested in him.

This tribute is due to the magnanimity and justice of the board.

"August 11, 1797."

"Unfortunately for the sufferers, the Martinique captures are not yet tried; we have waited a long time; they are expected to come on next week, as they were this. It is not believed, however, that the Admiralty, or Lords of Appeals, will decree a sentence, commensurate to the damage.

Next summer, the Commissioners, we doubt not, will complete what they have so well begun; about eighty or ninety claims have already been settled, and paid for by this government."

"August 11, 1797"

"I wrote by the Belvidere, about 10 days since, to inform you, that the monies awarded in several cases, had been paid by this government. I have since authorised the individuals to draw on me here for their respective sums. The Board of Commissioners will not again meet until the 1st of November. So far as we have progressed, all has turned out well. God grant the termination of the business may be equally favourable."

"August 12, 1797."

The question of recovering, against the underwriters on policies, where the ship has been warranted American, and has been condemned in France, together with the cargo, for not being documented, agreeably to the treaty between the two countries, has been tried in the court of king's bench, in the case of the Commerce, warranted American Ship, bound from Lisbon to London, and carried into Nantes, and there condemned on that ground. Lord Kenyon held, that every man was bound to conform to the laws and treaties of his own country; that in warranting the ship neutral, or American, he obliged himself to prove her qualified with every document necessary by their laws and treaties, to support her neutrality and that if she was condemned for any default in them, the warrant was not made out, and consequently the underwriter was exonerated. This decision is conformable to some precedents established last war by lord Mansfield, in cases of other neutral vessels under similar circumstances, and was generally expected. But it will involve much American property insured here, and leave the owners no chance of redress, but from the French government.

It is matter of great surprise here, that your citizens have exposed so many of their vessels to confiscation, by neglecting to provide them with the papers which the treaty of 1778 acknowledges to be necessary, in case of France being at war with any other power, and the very form of which that treaty prescribes."