A report was prepared in the name of the committee, but, in fact, by Mr. Bowring, which, on the 23rd of October, was submitted to a meeting of the bond-holders. It manifested on the very face of it a strong anxiety to conceal much of the truth, rather than to present to the world a full disclosure of the fraud and folly with which the Greek loans had been connected and yet it betrayed enough to excite in the public mind strong disgust at the incapacity and dishonesty of most of those who had been parading on the public stage as disinterested friends of Greece. The first loan, the report stated, was contracted for in the begin Interest Commission on loan," and shipments to Greece. Sinking Fund Specie sent to Greece Stores sent to Greece 10,063 6 5 3,858 15 0 1,027 15 10 E that the whole of the first loan, though placed under the guard-d ianship of Mr. Ellice and Mr. Hume, had disappeared without producing even the semblance of benefit to Greece. The report did not deal quite so gently with the second loan: the management of which had been in other hands. Its nominal amount sterling, which had been taken at was 2,000,000! 55 per cent; and with some Individual Expenses of the Deputation 4,800 0 0 20,000 0 0 182,401 14 4 33,713 5 6 59,732 19 6 2,297 16 6 339 9 8 160,000 0 0 156,990 5 0 ... 113,182 0 0 15,108 1 6 5,039 9 11 4,552 11 0 Loss on Exchequer Bills, and on Money sent to Marseilles and returned Ditto by Failure of Mr. Mavrocordato. of a Contract for Guns 6,716 19 8 411 12 0 2,695 5 3 1,000 0 0 Penalty to Mr. Contostavlos, for the non-fulfilment Paid to Mr. Graham for Military Stores, not sent, on account of the Proclamation... Sent for the relief of Missolonghi Arms and Clothing sent from Paris to Greece.. Assistance and Charity to Poor Greeks in London .. The detection of the gross misapplication of a sum, which, if employed with common sense or common honesty, would have ensured the liberation of Greece, led to squabbles among the individuals who had been accessory to the mismanagement of the money and these squabbles led to mutual accusations little honourable to the parties concerned. Of this commission, it was stated that Mr. Ellice had received 14,000. Mr. Easthope, 10,000l.; Messrs. Lloyd and Co. 6,5001.; the deputies 7,500/.; &c. 205 0 0 Orlando, Luriottis and Spaniolacki (deputies or agents of the Greeks), Hume, Ellice, Bowring, and Messrs. Ricardo, filled the newspapers with letters of palliation or recrimination. We shall not descend into the details of the petty meanness and manoeuvring, which the correspondence unveiled to the public: but two or three instances may be given of the mode in which the agents and trustees of Greece dealt with her money. In the first loan, Mr. Hume had assigned to him 10,000l. stock, at the rate of 591. per hundred, the original price at which the contract was made. Some time afterwards, the bonds having fallen to 16 per cent discount, Mr. Hume became alarmed, and applied to the deputies and contractors to relieve him from his loss. The deputies at first refused, intimating that, if the stock had risen, Mr. Hume would not have parted with the profit. He, however, insisted on his demand; he was powerful, for he had a control over the proceeds of the loan; and at length the deputies consented to take the stock off his hands at the rate of 13 per cent discount. Thus Mr. Hume lost only 1,3007. instead of 1,6007.; and the loss of the 300l. was gratuitously thrown upon Greece. Some time afterwards Greek stock rose above par; and Mr. Hume made strenuous and persevering applications to have the 1,3007. returned to him. The request excited considerable surprise, but, from an unwillingness to disoblige so ardent and faithful a friend of the Greek cause, this sum also given to him. Still Mr. Hume was not satisfied. He discovered that the interest on the 1,3007., from the date when the contractors took his stock from him at 13 per cent discount to the date when they made him a present of the was 1,3007., would amount to 541. He accordingly applied also for this sum of 541. and received it. In like manner Mr. Bowring took 25,000l. of stock at the original price of 597.percent. The stock fell, and he, being unable to pay his instalments, made vehement remonstrances, coupled with representations of his services to the Greek cause, to induce the deputies to make Greece bear the loss accruing upon his speculation. Hume seconded his entreaties; and, partly by menaces and partly by persuasion, the deputies were prevailed upon to commit a breach of trust and to take back the stock at the rate of 10 per cent discount. The stock having subsequently risen to a premium, Mr. Bowring applied to have the stock returned to him. The answer to his request was (and the answer was supported by the production of his own hand-writing) that he had sold the stock to the deputies. He declared that he had forgotten or misunderstood the circumstance; Mr. Hume again interfered in his behalf: and the deputies paid him back 2,500l., to which he had no right, and which was so much money abstracted from the funds of Greece. CHAP. XIV. THE UNITED STATES-Negotiations with Britain regarding the Colonial Trade.-SOUTH AMERICA-War between Brazil and Buenos Ayres-Constitution of Brazil-STATES OF THE RIO DE LA PLATA -COLOMBIA-Revolt in Venezuela-Venezuela declares itself Independent-Return of Bolivar-Non-payment of the Dividends on the Debt-Laws concerning the Public Debt.-MEXICO-FinancesNegotiations with the Pope-GUATEMALA-Internal Dissentions. -PERU-Surrender of Callao-The National Representatives refuse to meet-Conspiracy against Bolivar-He is chosen President for Life-His departure-Finances- BOLIVIA ceives a Constitution from Bolivar-CHILI-Chiloe conqueredInsurrection in Chiloe in favour of O'Higgins-Confusion in the Government-The Supreme Director resigns-Non-payment of the Dividends on the Public Debt.-CONGRESS OF PANAMA. re DURING this year, the United led, by ill health, to decline the presidents, Mr. Jefferson and From Customs From the public lands From Bank dividends in Washington; and, before sunset, they had both breathed their last, having witnessed their country rising, during half a century, to power and wealth, under the government in laying whose foundations they had borne so large a share. Their whole lives had been spent in the public service; they had filled the highest offices in the state at home, and conducted its diplomacy abroad. The revenues still continued to be more than equal to the expenditure; and, in the budget of the year, they were estimated as follows: The revenue From miscellaneous and incidental receipts 24,000,000 00 dollars 385,000 00 115,000 00 -25,500,000 00 The expenditure of the year was estimated as follows: Military service, including fortifications, ordnance, Indian department, revolutionary and military pensions, arming the militia, and arrearages prior to the 1st of January, 1817.. 5,525,662 55 Naval service, including the gradual increase of the navy Public debt Which would leave in the Treasury on the 31st December, 1826, after satisfying all the demands of that year, a surplus estimated at The United States were more interested than any other country in the progress of the new South American republics. Geographical situation, as well as similarity of political institutions, drew them towards each other, and promised to the former peculiar advantages for the establishment and extension of a most lucrative commerce. The general Congress which the South American republics proposed to hold at Panama, held out to the United States an opportunity of forming with them a connection exclusive of all European influence, which would make North America, in some measure, a member of their own body, and secure to it preferences and a preponderance, to which European powers, who took no part in the deliberations of the assembled representatives of the American continent, could not hope to aspire. On the other hand, in such an assembly of political bodies, who had just thrown off the supremacy of the mother country, whom the mother country still treated as rebels, and whose independence was far from having been universally and cheerfully recognized by the European courts, 3,026,612 81 10,000,000 00 -20,584,730 03 4,915,269 93 it was more than probable that measures might be proposed, and resolutions adopted, to which the United States could not become parties without injuring their relations with Europe, or, at all events, with Spain. To America, the recognition by Spain of the independence of her colonies was of much deeper interest than to the powers of Europe; their relations with these colonies would be only commercial and diplomatic; but America would naturally form with them a much more intimate political union, directed exclusively to American objects; and some American statesmen were already speaking of preventing Europe from "colonizing any part of America." Hence arose the urgency with which the United States were using all their influence in the cabinets of Europe, and particularly that of Russia, to procure from Spain a formal acknowledgment of an independence which had been established irreversibly de facto, and hence arose their hesitation to become at once members of this Amphyctionic council. From the moment it was projected, Mexico and Colombia had expressed their wish |