ties to accept such offer should be sent in.

To do this, an Act of the Canada Legislature will be necessary, and when that is obtained the subsequent arrangements might be made; or through some party deputed on the part of the Canadas to this country with full instructions.

It may, perhaps, be also expedient at the same time by law to enable trustees, &c., to account, as in cases where the interest of loans are received in this country. Upon receiving the information of the assent of the parties accepting the terms proposed, the necessary means may be taken in this country to raise the requisite funds; and it may be expedient that you should fix the day for the paying off such assenting creditors and other claims at a time when the Parliament of this country is sitting; for should it be necessary to have recourse to a loan, such a measure has always been considered open to objection during the prorogation of Parliament.

2.-DEFENCE.

I have perused with great interest the enclosures in your despatch of the 24th of December, containing reports from Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Jackson, and Colonel Oldfield, the commanding officer of engineers, on this subject.

The question is one of so much importance, that I was not satisfied with referring your despatch to the Master-General and Board of Ordnance, but I also asked the opinion of the Commander-inChief, and requested him to consult the Duke of Wellington, whose high authority on every

military subject is in this instance of peculiar weight, from the attention he has for many years given to this matter, both on political and on military grounds. Their opinions are transmitted with this despatch.

Her Majesty's Government agree in opinion with Lord Hill and Sir Richard Jackson, that "no dependence upon the decided superiority of our troops, and arrangements made for defence connected with them, should lead us to neglect the construction and completion of permanent works calcu lated for the protection of the points of most importance to us."

They likewise concur in his Lordship's opinion, that in the event of the construction of these or any other works, a large effective regular force, and a militia, registered and enrolled, but not called from their districts, except in case of invasion, will be indispensable.

But it cannot be reasonably expected that works on a large scale should be undertaken without reference to the great expense to be incurred.

At

I have therefore to inform you that the Government are prepared to state their opinion that, beyond the ordinary estimates of the year, 100,000l. should yearly be applied for the defence of Canada. present, this sum is nearly absorbed in the maintenance of the militia and volunteers. But by a more economical plan this expense might be greatly diminished, and a great portion of the sum of 100,000l. left for the improvement of military communications, and the erection or repair of fortifications.

You will hear further from me on this point when I have more

3. EMIGRATION.

I have read with great interest your despatches on this subject, and I agree with you in opinion that it would not be wise for this country to engage to convey emigrants to Canada at the public expense. But neither can I agree that this country ought to pledge itself indefinitely to the expense of maintaining the emigrants in Canada till they are able to obtain employment.

I quite concur, however, in the sense you entertain of the importance of the object.

It is a hardship to Canada that she should be obliged to maintain the pauper emigrants from the United Kingdom, who arrive in a state of destitution and disease. But this object was formerly provided for by the imposition of the emigrant tax, and I think the renewal of this tax should be recommended to the Legislature of Canada.

I have recommended to the Treasury that the expense thus incurred by the emigrant should, in consideration of the great political advantages likely to flow from emigration to Canada, be defrayed by this country.

Supposing a tax of 5s. a-head, 32,000 emigrants might be freed from the tax for 8,000l. This is a sum which I think Parliament might be asked to vote for so important an object. The tax might then be paid in Canada, not by the captain of the passenger ship, but by the Commissary-General,

of emigrants landed.

In this case, the only emigrants paid for must be those whose fitness for emigration had been previously attested by an emigration agent in this country.

The emigrant tax would then act as a check, and very properly so, on those who could not obtain the attestation required.

I have now adverted to the three principal topics to which I have called the attention of the Queen's confidential servants. There are many others of great importance to the welfare of Canada, but upon which I am anxious to receive your reports before proceeding further.

Of this kind are the engagements of the Land Companies, and the future disposal of the Crown Lands.

The means of communication for commercial purposes within the British territory, through the whole length of Canada, must always be a matter of the highest interest, both to Canada and to this country. But it seems to me that with a Legislature in Canada disposed to co-operate with the Queen and the Parliament of the United Kingdom, in developing her vast and unexplored resources, there is every hope that we shall behold the prosperity of that noble province augment every year, and add more and more to the strength and stability of the empire.

I have, &c., (Signed) J. RUSSELL. The Right Hon. Lord Sydenham, &c.

shall, excepting the reservations and modifications aforesaid, be held to have been concluded and signed, in the same manner as the present Convention, directly between her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the President of the Republic of Hayti.

The high contracting parties engage and promise reciprocally to each other, to execute faithfully all the clauses conditions, and obligations of the present Convention, subject always to the reservations and modifications therein contained; and in order to prevent any uncertainty, it has been agreed that the above mentioned Conventions, and the Annex of the latter, containing instructions to cruizers, shall be inserted here, word for word, as follows:

to

[Here follow the Conventions of November 30, 1831, and March 22, 1833, and the Annex containing the Instructions cruizers, which have already been laid before Parliament.] ARTICLE II.-It is agreed, with reference to the Vth Article of the instructions annexed to the Supplementary Convention of the 22nd of March, 1833, that all vessels bearing the Haytian flag, and appearing by their papers to belong to Hayti, which shall be detained in execution of the Conventions above described, by the cruizers of her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, shall be conducted or sent to Port-au-Prince, capital of the Republic of Hayti.

ARTICLE III.-If the Republic of Hayti should not deem it expedient to fit out cruizers for the suppression of the Slave Trade, it nevertheless engages to furnish the special authority or warrant re

quired by the Vth Article of the Convention of the 30th November, 1831, to the commanders of the British cruizers, as soon as the names and the number thereof shall have been notified to the republic.

ARTICLE IV.-Whereas the Islands of Cuba and of Porto Rico are only separated from the Island of Hayti by a narrow strait each; and whereas the Republic of Hayti, as a free, sovereign, and independent state, possesses the exclusive right of police within its own waters; it is agreed that, by exception to Nos. 3 and 4 of Article I. of the Convention of the 30th November, 1831, British cruizers shall not search Haytian vessels navigating within that half of one or the other strait contiguous to the coasts of Hayti.

ARTICLE V.-It is also agreed: 1st. That Article II. of the Convention of the 30th of November, 1831, Article I. of the Convention of the 22nd of March, 1833, and No. 1 of the instructions thereunto annexed, shall, as far as the commanders of Haytian cruizers are concerned, be understood in this sense, that the said commanders shall be of the ranks therein specified, or of corresponding ranks.

2nd. That by exception to Article V. of the Convention of the 22nd March, 1833, that portion of the net produce of the sale of the captured vessels and of their cargoes, which falls to the share of the British cruizers, shall, conformably to the Haytian laws, be only fifty per cent. of the net produce of the sale; and it is further understood that no kind of head money will be due by the Haytian Government on captives found on board the said ships, and landed in the republic.

3rd. That the last paragraph of