If the remainder of the Penalty be exacted, It will certainly involve a Merchant of fair Character with a Wife and large Family in irretrievable Ruin; but however favorable such a plea cannot fail to prove, yet I should have Reluctance to urge It alone against a direct Violation of the Law, were there not other Circumstances that seem to call for some Mitigation on the Part of Government, as the Conduct of their own officer Mr. Dawson, Sub-Collector, is by no Means free from Censure, for, by his incautious Proceedings, (not to give them a severer Term,) with the Merchant at the Moment of Exportation, He was led to the Commission of a Crime, nor then interfered in its Prevention, which It was his Duty as an Executive Officer to do.

How far the assertions of Mr. Venables are to be credited, that his Intentions were correct, though the Facts stand against Him, I cannot pretend to determine, and have only to add that he bears a respectable Character.

It is necessary to bring to your Lordship's view that the Rights of others are concerned in this Question, for, by the Laws of this Colony, in the general Disposal of Fines, a Third goes to the Government, another Share to the Fiscal or Attorney General, and the Remainder to the Informer. In the present Instance Mr. Blair, the Collector, has signified to Me his wishes to resign. his Share, and Mr. Truter, His Majesty's Fiscal, very generously professes his ready obedience to the Will of Government.

The general View thus stands for his Majesty's pleasure. Mr. Venables has already lost and suffered the Penalty of 12,620 Rix Dollars, the original Price of the Goods.

If the further Fine be exacted He will have to pay 14,088 Rix Drs. being twice the Value of the Goods sold in auction.

The Remission of this sum forms the Prayer of his Petition.

I have directed the latter Penalty to be suspended till I receive the Orders of Government. I have etc.

[Original]

Letter from REAR ADMIRAL STOPFORD to J. W. CROKER, ESQRE. HIS MAJESTY'S SHIP Lion,

TABLE BAY, 29th January 1812.

SIR,-You will be pleased to acquaint my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty that His Majesty's Ship Owen Glendower arrived in Table Bay with Vice Admiral Sir Samuel Hood on the 17th Instant, and that the Vice Admiral Sailed Yesterday to pursue his Voyage to India.

Having in pursuance of their Lordships' directions Shifted my Flag from the Scipion to the Lion, I have ordered Captain Johnstone to take the Caroline extra Indiaman under the Scipion's Convoy from hence to St. Helena, and also to take under his protection such Ships as he may find at that Island bound to England, or strengthen any Convoy that may already have been appointed for that purpose.

Acting upon the Authority of their Lordships' permission expressed to me in your Letter of the 13th February 1811 to make the best arrangements in my power in regard to the Scipion's Officers, I have to inform you that I have exchanged the greater part of the Lieutenants, and as Captain Johnstone was appointed by their Lordships to the Scipion when going upon a particular Service, in which his knowledge of the local circumstances was deemed desirable, I have now (that Service being concluded) complied with his request to return to England and continued him in the Command of the Scipion.

Their Lordships will find in the annexed dispatches Captain Heathcote's Letter (and a Copy of my answer) which induced my compliance with his wish also to return to England, and I have in consequence of the vacancy in the Lion appointed Captain Bain to act in that Ship, he being the only Master and Commander here, and have put Lieutenant Hore my Flag Lieutenant into the Harpy.

The Harpy sailed on the 28th Instant to relieve the Eclipse at the Isle of France, and I have sent directions for Captain Lynne to go round by the North end of Madagascar and come to this place by the Mozambique Channel for the purpose of reconnoitring the harbor and communicating with the Governor of Mozambique.

Within the last Week three ships under Portuguese Colors have put into Table Bay coming from Mozambique and bound to Rio Janeiro with Slaves. I have in the instance of one of these Ships acted upon the fifth Article of the Treaty between His Britannic Majesty and the Prince Regent of Portugal Signed at Rio Janeiro on the 19th February 1810, and detained her upon the proof of her being an American Ship and not built in any part of the dominions of the Crown of Portugal.

These Vessels appear to Sail in a very irregular manner, as they are not provided with Registers or Licences to carry on this Species of traffick.

Their Lordships will observe the great facility afforded to the Portuguese Slave Ships employed between Mozambique and Rio Janeiro in their stopping at the Cape of Good Hope to replenish their stock of Water.

By this convenience the Traders are enabled to crowd their Ships in a most inhuman manner; this practice would be in a great measure stopped by depriving them of this advantage and compelling them to adapt their Cargos to the capacity of the Vessel for the Stowage of Water Sufficient to perform the whole Voyage.

Serious injury is also likely to arise to the Inhabitants of this Colony by these Slave Ships making a practice of stopping here. Two of the Vessels now in Table Bay have the Small Pox on board, and though every precaution is taken to prevent communication with the Shore, yet it is very possible to introduce the contagion by means of the Boats which Supply the Ships with water. I have etc.

(Signed)

ROBERT STOPFORD, Rear Admiral.

[Office Copy.]

Letter from ROBERT PEEL, ESQRE., to SIR JOHN CRADOCK.

DOWNING STREET, 31st January 1812.

SIR, I am directed by the Earl of Liverpool to request you will give directions that a Certificate duly authenticated, of the death and burial of Charles John Bunbury, Esq', then a Captain

in the 52nd Regt., who died and was buried at the Cape where he had touched upon his Passage from India to England about the beginning of the Year 1798, be made out from the Registry of burials by the first opportunity that may occur; and that you will have the goodness to transmit it to this Department.

Letter from the EARL OF LIVERPOOL to SIR JOHN CRADOCK. DOWNING STREET, 1st February 1812.

SIR,-Having received and laid before The Prince Regent your Letter of the 29th September last, I am Commanded to acquaint you, that His Royal Highness has been pleased to sanction the payment of 30s. per day to the Officer who is second in Command until the arrival of a Lieutenant Governor.

I am at the same time to suggest that it would have been more regular to have received the Pleasure of His Royal Highness before the Appropriation was made. I have, etc.

Letter from J. A. TRUTER, ESQRE., to DEPUTY SECRETARY BIRD.

FISCAL'S OFFICE, 11th February 1812.

SIR,—I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 13th of January last respecting the tenures of this Colony, on which subject His Excellency considers it highly advisable that some fixed principles should be adopted with regard to grants of land or leases to be made in future, desiring my opinion.

1st. With respect to the nature and form of tenure which would be most desirable in future grants or leases, bearing in mind that the permanent interest of the Settlement is the object which His Excellency means strictly to keep in view.

2nd. Respecting the practicability and expediency of making such alteration in the present tenure upon which loan places are held as would give the holders a complete property therein, upon terms of mutual advantage to Government and the parties.

The present state of tenure in this Colony is very defective. Of the three sorts of tenure mentioned in my letter of the 28th of June last, namely property, loan, and quitrent, the first only has its limitations, but both the others must be considered as uncertain. Loan places are subject to resumption, and altho' such indemnification be made to the holder, as I took the liberty to assert in my said letter of the 28th of June, to be equitable, yet this indemnification is not sufficient to quiet the mind of the holders against the eventually possible loss of their possessions, much less is it calculated to excite their industry further than towards what is requisite to ensure the enjoyment of momentary profit. Improvements, the fruits of which are viewed only at a remote distance, and may even be reaped by others against the wish of the improver, have a tendency to create aversion rather than encouragement in the mind of such fluctuating holder.

Quit Rent is not resumable annually, but expires at the term of 15 years, after which Government has the right to resume the land as their property, without paying anything more to the tenant than the mere buildings and plantations at a proper valuation, without being obliged to make good any further melioration whatever. The annexures sub No. 1, 2, and 3 contain the undeniable proof of this assertion. Under such circumstances agriculture in this Colony can never obtain that degree of perfection which it would be susceptible of if the loan holders were secured in the permanent and undisturbed enjoyment of the produce of their industry, as well for themselves as to their heirs and successors.

The want of this security is in the first place prejudicial to the individual holder, but it has also a material influence on the Revenues of Government, because the places through less careful cultivation remain of lesser value, and produce less, while besides in such a state of stagnation or at least slow progress of general industry Government can never with any degree of certainty take measures for the improvement of agriculture as long as the interest of the individual does not co-operate.

These reasons, added to the uncertainty of the limits of Loan places, the want of right in the possessor to parcel the same while