[Enclosure 5 in the above.] DOWNING STREET, 15th December 1807, MY LORD,-Having referred your letter to Mr. Windham of the 30th of May last, together with the memorial of Mr. Tennant therein mentioned to the Commissioners of transports, I herewith enclose to your Lordship a copy of their report thereon, and concurring entirely in the same, I cannot recommend that Mr. Tennant's claim should be liquidated to the extent specified. The Commissioners of the said board however on the claim being again submitted to them together with the whole of the vouchers in support thereof will decide as to the amount of the sum, under all the circumstances of the case Mr. Tennant may be entitled to receive. I have etc. To the Earl of Caledon, &c., &c. (Signed) [Enclosure 6 in the above.] HAWKESBURY. TRANSPORT OFFICE, 10th December 1807. MY LORD, We have received your Lordship's letter of the 14th of September last enclosing a copy of a letter addressed to Mr. Windham by Lord Caledon, with a copy of the memorial therein referred to from Mr. Alexander Tennant, praying reimbursement of various expences, which he himself states to have incurred in obtaining the liberation of and conveying to St. Helena the crews of several British vessels that had been captured by the French and carried into the Cape, and desiring that we should take the necessary measures for ascertaining the accuracy of the above statement, and report to your Lordship, for His Majesty's information, our opinion as to the matter of fact thereof. Having taken such measures as were in our power for ascertaining the accuracy of Mr. Tennant's statement, we have the honor to report to your Lordship that there does not appear to be any reason to doubt the fact of Mr. Tennant having procured the release of the British prisoners to whom he alludes, and of his having sent them at his own expence from the Cape of Good Hope to the Island of St. Helena, but we are of opinion that there was no occasion for the expence thus incurred, because several British prisoners, some of whom appeared at this office, had previously returned from the Cape of Good Hope to this country by neutral vessels without any expence to Government, and because it is to be believed that the Dutch Government at the Cape would have continued to release prisoners by all such opportunities rather than be at the expence of their maintenance in the colony, if Mr. Tennant had not interfered and voluntarily offered to pay not only for their transportation, but also for their maintenance while they remained at the Cape. The whole sum claimed by Mr. Tennant on account of his expences for about 120 British prisoners is not less than £5688 12s. 4d.,-if his motive for incurring this very enormous expence on account of so small a number of prisoners was merely a desire to relieve his countrymen in distress it is remarkable that in both the instances in which he hired American vessels for the conveyance of the prisoners to St. Helena he engaged them not only to proceed to that island, but also to return from thence to the Cape of Good Hope, and on the first occasion he himself actually proceeded in the vessel to St. Helena and back. It is evident that neither of his voyages to St. Helena nor the stipulative return of the vessels to the Cape of Good Hope could have any relation to the exchange of prisoners, and there is therefore the strongest ground for believing that the vessels were engaged partly, if not chiefly, on account of commercial objects. It is worthy of remark that Mr. Tennant was so regardless of economy in procuring the release of his countrymen that altho' he hired a vessel of 134 tons at an expence of 7000 rixdollars for the conveyance of 56 prisoners, yet five of that number having afterwards preferred going to St. Helena in a Danish vessel, the master of which offered to take them without any payment, Mr. Tennant makes a charge of £130 stg. paid by him as a present to the master of that vessel. We think it necessary here to observe that troops are conveyed from this country to the Cape of Good Hope at an expence on the most liberal calculation of £21 per man, which is not one half of the expence here charged for conveying one man from the Cape to St. Helena. We have thought proper thus far only to state our particular objections to the claim of Mr. Tennant, but we feel it our duty to inform your Lordship of the general grounds on which the payment of the money has hitherto been resisted by us. These are not merely the exorbitancy of a charge nearly fifty pounds per man for sending prisoners from the Cape to St. Helena, but also the circumstance of there being no precedent for any claim of this nature and our belief that if an expence thus incurred by an Individual, in an enemy's country, without authority from government, were once allowed, it would form a precedent which would lead to the most serious consequences; and as there do not appear to be any peculiar circumstances in this case to entitle it to the favorable consideration of Government, we are still decidedly of opinion that Mr. Tennant's claim, at least to its present extent, ought not to be paid. We have etc. Proclamation by SIR JOHN CRADOCK. Whereas I have judged it expedient to revise and amend the tariff of stamp duty at present in use in this settlement, and by virtue of the power and authority in me vested, to direct and order, and it is hereby so ordered, that stamps, according to the annexed schedule, be in future used in all circumstances to which the schedule aforesaid applies; of which regulation the worshipful the Court of Justice, and all other public bodies and individuals, are hereby required to take notice, as the same will be enforced according to the existing laws. TARIFF OF STAMP DUTIES IN THE COLONY OF THE Mortgages passed at the secretary's office, government bank, and orphan chamber: Bills or promissory notes drawn in favor of, or endorsed to, the bank, to be written on or covered with the following stamps: Wills, and all other deeds which are relative to the same, or arise from it. Wills and Codicils. Rds. st. A. When the testator values his estate less than 6000 guilders. 1 0 15 0 B. Codicil or alteration of a will according to the clause reservation D. Deeds of donation, inter vivos, and causa mortis: E. Inventories of estates without the valuation of the same, and all |