The Recorder, Or, Lady's And Gentleman's Miscellany

LONDON, December 9

The British subjects, holders of property in France, dispatched last week to Amiens, Mr. Walter Boyd, jun. a partner in the late Banking House of Boyd, Ker and Co. at Paris, with memorials for Lord Cornwallis, in order to have their claims taken into consideration, and stipulated for in the definitive treaty.

The committee of the British claimants have been informed, by the bankers at Paris, that the French government propose to give to such of them as are stockholders an inscription on the great book of the republic for a third of their debt, and that they must submit to the loss of the dividends become due for ten years past, which being equal to 50 per cent. is, in fact, a loss on a supposed capital of £300. of 88 per cent. viz.

The original capital, £.300
Interest, or dividends, for ten years? 150
450
Payment offered in inscriptions, one third of the capital, 100, now equal to 55
Loss to the British subject, £.395

At the same time, the French holder of British stock has received not only the whole of his stock, but even the dividends accruing upon them; and we know a merchant of the first eminence in Broad-street, whom we forbear to name, who, last week, restored to the house of Vendenyver, of Paris, more than 50,000l. for stock and dividends, in his hands, to their full amount during the war. The same has been done by the Thelluons, and every other great house, which have hastened to procure licenses to pay in full those friends, for whom they hold British stock. This acknowledgement is due to the honor of those houses, and to the public faith of this country.

The French government has at last offered to discharge the debt incurred for the maintenance of French prisoners in England, by six installments of a month each; and, with certain exceptions, this mode of adjustment has been accepted by our government:

NOTE.

The sufferings of Mr. Walter Boyd, and of other stock-jobbers in the French funds, will excite but small sympathy, when we consider that this kind of people were the prime movers of the present war. Neither the harangues of Mr. Pitt, nor the votes of the house of commons, could have supported its expense for eighteen months, if they had not found a resource in those immense loads of paper which this Mr. Boyd, and other agents of the same kind found means to circulate for them. If the French, therefore, clip the wings of their property in the French funds, it is only what the Parliament of England will, perhaps, one day do. David Hume who was not only a violent Monarchist, but even a violent Jacobite, gives a hint of this kind in one of his additional notes to the edition of the History of England which was published just after his death. He recommends, that the public debt of England should be discharged with a Spunge. He says, that this would only purchase the welfare of millions, with the ruin of thousands.