(Enclosure 3.)-Decree of the Mixed Commission, 26th Sept. 1826. Portuguese Brig, Perpetuo Defensor, Antonio Mauricio De Mendonça, Master.

THIS day, the Court, after hearing the Report of the Registrar read, and the Proctors on both sides on the same, ordered the said Report to be referred back to the Registrar, to be amended by striking out, under the head of Special Damages and Expences, the following sums: viz.

£22 Os. Amount of Baker's bill for 80 days.

Amount of Butcher's bill for 80 days.

To purchase provisions for Crew of 19 Persons for a Voyage from hence to Rio Janeiro, a supposed Voyage of 60 days.

To purchase Cabin stores.

For wooding and watering.

For advance to Seamen hired here:

the Commissioners being of opinion the said sums are expences, which the amount allowed for Demurrage covers. The Commissioners further directed that in lieu of the sum of £225 allowed by the Registrar for the interest of the supposed Capital employed, which includes the value of the Brig, that the interest be allowed on the amount of the purchase and maintenance of the Cargo, which the Commissioners conceive means the purchase and maintenance of the Slaves only, reckoning the value of the Slaves and their maintenance at the cost price in The Brazils of the goods with which the Slaves were purchased, and the means of their maintenance, procured in manner following, viz.:-473 Slaves shipped on board according to the Master's statement, at an average of £4 each, according to the Leeward price, and two-pence, British sterling, per head per diem, for the maintenance of each Slave, that being about the rate of maintenance of the liberated Africans when first landed in this Colony, which appears to the Court to be a fair rate.

(Enclosure 4.)—Decree of the Mixed Commission, 28th Sept. 1826. Portuguese Brig, Perpetuo Defensor, Antonio Mauricio de Mendonça, Master.

THE Registrar's Report amended, as ordered by the Court on the 26th day of this instant month of September, being brought in and read, and Proctors on both sides being heard on the same, the Commissioners confirmed, unconditionally, so much of the said Report as the Registrar therein set forth the Claimant was entitled to for Costs of Suit, and for Special Damages and Expences occasioned to the said Brig by detention, amounting to £79; they also confirmed, unconditionally, so much more of the said Report as the Registrar stated

the Claimant entitled to for provisioning the Slaves from the 29th of June to the 6th day of July last, amounting to the sum of £122 10s.; and it having been represented and proved to the satisfaction of the Court, that the said Ship would be unable to proceed to Sea, unless the Master could raise a further sum of £150, by the Court giving a further unconditional award for that Sum, the Commissioners therefore did also unconditionally confirm so much of the sum allowed by the Registrar in the said Report for Demurrage, as amounts to £150. Whereupon the Commissioners did award and decree that Charles Bullen, Esq. the Captor in this Case, do pay to the said Antonio Mauricio de Mendonça, or his lawful Attorney or Attornies, for his use, unconditionally, the before-mentioned sums, amounting in the whole to £351 10s., being for Costs of Suit, Special Damages, and Expences, provisioning of the Slaves, and for part of the Demurrage as aforesaid.

And the Commissioners, having stated their conviction that the Claimant in this Case had carried on an illicit Traffick in Slaves during the present Voyage, inasmuch as it had been clearly proved that the Slaves taken on board this Vessel were shipped from Badagry, in 6. 26. North of the Equator, and 2. 52. Longitude East of Greenwich, in direct defiance of the Convention made between Great Britain and Portugal, in the Year of our Lord, 1817, for the prevention of illicit Traffick in Slaves; and the Commissioners, therefore, deeming it just and equitable that this Case should be adjudicated on the same principles as the Case of the Brig Activo, whereof Jozé Pinto de Araujo, was Master, which Case was lately before this Court, inasmuch as the said Charles Bullen, Esq. could not be aware of the Decision in that Case, at the time he made the present seizure, and the Commissioners being of opinion, as in that Case, that the absolute and unconditional confirming the whole of the amended Report, would be contrary to the principles of equity, and would, in point of fact, be rewarding the Claimant, not only for a breach of the Convention between Great Britain and Portugal, for the prevention of the illicit Traffick in Slaves, but also for a breach of the Laws of his own Country; and the Commissioners having considered in this Case, as in the former, that, by the Convention aforesaid, there is no Appeal from their Judgment, and also that it is most desirable that some additional measure should be adopted by the British and Brazilian Governments for the prevention of such glaring violations of the Convention as the present, and that of the Activo, and in the hope that this Case may, in addition to the other, particularly call forth the attention of both Governments, have, therefore, only conditionally confirmed the remaining part of the Amended Report; and therefore the Commissioners did further award and decree that the said Charles Bullen, Esq. the Captor in this Case, do pay to the said Antonio Mauricio de Mendonça, or his lawful Attorney or Attornies, for his use, the sum of £1,280 for the remainder of the

amount of Demurrage of the said Brig, provided the British and Brazilian Governments agree and declare that the said sum ought to be so paid, according to the true intent and meaning of the Convention aforesaid, but not otherwise.

And the said Commissioners did further award and decree that the said Charles Bullen, Esq. do pay to the said Antonio Mauricio de Mendonça, or his lawful Attorney or Attornies, for his use, the further sum of 79,716,000 Reis, for the total loss of 364 Slaves, provided, as before, that the British and Brazilian Governments agree and declare that the same ought to be so paid, according to the true intent and meaning of the Convention aforesaid, but not otherwise.

And the said Commissioners did further award and decree that the said Charles Bullen, Esq. do pay to the said Antonio Mauricio de Mendonça, or his lawful Attorney or Attornies, for his use, the further sum of £102. 9s. 8d. being for the interest on the estimated capital employed in the purchase and maintenance of the Cargo of Slaves, provided, as before, the British and Brazilian Governments agree and declare that the said Sum ought to be so paid, according to the true intent and meaning of the Convention aforesaid, but not otherwise.

No. 47.-Mr. Secretary Canning to His Majesty's Commissioners. GENTLEMEN,

Foreign Office, December 30, 1826.

YOUR several Despatches up to the 12th of October, marked Portugal, have been duly received.

In reference to the Despatches, containing Reports of the Cases of the Ships Activo and Perpetuo Defensor, I have to refer you to the Case of the Sinceridade, adjudged by you in the Year 1823, and to the Declaration which, in that Case was made to His Most Faithful Majesty by the British Government, through the King's Envoy; that on the one hand, no Compensation can, in equity, be due to Traders for losses sustained by them in Cases of Traffick, carried on under circumstances which constitute illegal Trade; whilst, on the other hand, no Condemnation of a Vessel ought to take place when the Capture is made at a Spot not absolutely within the Boundary prescribed for Capture by the Treaties.

This Declaration was not objected to by the Portuguese Government, and the principle of it, therefore, may be considered to be fully admitted.

As the Cases of Brazilian Vessels charged with illicit Slave Trade must be adjudged under the Compacts and Agreements with Portugal, until some further and special Convention shall be entered into upon the subject, between the Countries of Great Britain and Brazil, there is at present no clear course for you to pursue, in regard to Brazilian Vessels, other than to act upon the spirit of the Compacts and Agreements with Portugal.

In regard to those Slaves who, under circumstances of illegal shipment, but unwarranted capture, shall actually have been brought to Adjudication, I have to acquaint you, that the principle on which the Court acted in the Case of the Perpetuo Defensor, in decreeing such Slaves to be restored to the Master, for the use of the Claimant, was correct. But if special Cases should occur, in which the Court should be prevented, by unforeseen circumstances, from making such a Decree, or should be required to make any special disposition of such Slaves, it must use its discretion as to what may be right to be done. The Court cannot, with propriety, condemn them, or make an Order for their Emancipation. The only expedient seems to be, that the Slaves should be placed under the superintendence of the Local Government by some conditional Order. But this again will be subject to the Instructions which you may receive on the objection which has occurred in the Case of the Activo and Perpetuo Defensor, on which I shall probably have, shortly, to instruct you farther. &c. His Majesty's Commissioners. GEORGE CANNING.

I am,

SIERRA LEONE.-(Netherlands.)

No. 48.-Mr. Secretary Canning to His Majesty's Commissioners. GENTLEMEN, Foreign Office, March 13, 1826. With reference to the Treaty with The Netherlands for the prevention of Slave-trade, I have to acquaint you, that, by a Communication this day received from the Admiralty, it appears that the Instructions referred to in the said Treaty, have been issued to the following Ships and Vessels of His Majesty's Navy:

Conflict G. V.......... 12 ................................ Lieut. J. Chrystie.

And that the Instructions which had been issued to His Majesty's Ships Pyramus, Ariadne, Bann, Victor, Ringdove, and Grecian, have been recalled, and cancelled.

His Majesty's Commissioners.

I am, &c.

GEORGE CANNING.

No. 49.-J. T. Williams, Esq. to Mr. Sec". Canning.-(Rec. May 22.)
SIR,
Sierra Leone, February 15, 1826.
I HAVE the honour to transmit, herewith, a Report of the Case of
the Dutch Schooner Hoop, belonging to St. Eustatius, Jacob Walters,

Master. She was detained off Manna, on the 3rd January, by a Boat of His Majesty's Ship Maidstone, Commodore Bullen, and brought into Sierra Leone.

This Case came on for Adjudication in the British and Netherlands Court of Mixed Commision on the 23rd of January, and was proved to come so clearly under almost all the Provisions of the Addi. tional Article to the Treaty between His Majesty and His Majesty The King of The Netherlands, signed at Brussels, the 25th of January 1823, that I do not feel myself justified in trespassing on your time by any detail of particulars, but beg to refer you to the Report. I have the honour to be, &c.

The Right Hon. George Canning.

J. T. WILLIAMS.

(Enclosure.)-Report of the Case of the Dutch Schooner Hoop, Jacob Walters, Master.

THIS Vessel was detained on the 3d of January 1826, off Manna, by a Boat of His Majesty's Ship Maidstone (Commodore Bullen, C. B.) under the command of Lieutenant William Gray, of the same Ship.

The Declaration of Commodore Bullen states, that the Boat of His Majesty's Ship Maidstone, under the command of Lieutenant Gray, being between the River Gallinas and Manna, and off shore about 20 miles, detained the Hoop, sailing under Dutch Colours, belonging to St. Eustatius, not having Slaves on board, but falling under several of the designations of the Additional Articles to the Treaty with The Netherlands of the 4th May 1818, signed at Brussels on the 25th day of January 1823, viz:

Having been found within the limits particularly specified in the aforementioned Treaty, and hovering about the said River Gallinas and Manna.

Having her hatches fitted with open gratings, instead of being fitted with close hatches, as usual in Merchant Vessels.

Having spare plank, numbered, cut and fitted, for readily laying a Slave, or moveable, deck.

Having on board shackles, bolts and hand-cuffs, contained in casks, to appearance, at first sight, part of the Cargo for Trade, being similarly packed to bread, beef, &c.

Having on board a greater number of water casks, and many of them filled, more by far than requisite for the consumption of the Crew, as a Merchant Vessel, and no Certificate produced by the Master from the Custom-House, at which he cleared out, stating that sufficient security had been given by the Owners that such casks should only be used for the reception of palm-oil.

Having on board a quantity of mess kids.

Having on board large boilers, and also a great quantity of rice, the whole far beyond any probable requisite for the use of her Crew as a