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TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
pendence and that even Mexico ought to regard, as hopeless any ex- pectati?n of her re-conquest- That Great Britain was prepared to recogmse and conclude a Treaty, but in consequence of Great Britain being mediator between Mexico & Texas he thought that it was best not to impair her influence by an immediate act of recognition- That l\fr Packingham had been instructed to offer the mediation of Great Britain, he therefore thought that the negotiation had better not be immediately opened but to wait for Mr Packingham's reply- If it was not received very soon they would at once recognise. He assured me there would be no difficulty as to the Institution of Slavery, as this was a matter of internal r'?.gulation which belonged to your own Gov- ernment-- I informed him that I was coming immediately to the United States and that Gen Henderson would continue the negotiations- He re- quested me to make an application, in writing that it might be placed on file, for recognition and Treaty, that it might he taken up when the appropriate moment arrived-a Copy 5 of which I do myself the honour of trans-mitting you- I hope I may be excused from making an official communication on this subject to the Department of State as I do not wish to interfere in the slightest degree with· the credit to which Gen Henderson is so justly entitled for the ultimate success of these negotiations-- It is high time now that I should touch upon the most important topic of all, the money- I wrote you from Paris of what a dreadful :state of things existed in England, when I informed you, as I believe T <lid in that Letter-,6 that the rate of inter<'st on the best British securities was from 7 to 10 per cent- you may judge how unfavourable the auspices were, when added to this the best American securities were wholly unsaleable- Such however was the very tempting character of the sinking Fund Bond, a Copy 7 of which I transmitted yo"!l by my Son, which you are aware was arranged by Mr Shaw & myself previous to my going out to England, that we determined to try it on Change, and I am very happy to inform you that they took beyond our most sanguine expectations- and but from the extraordinary derangement of the times we should have had no difficulty whatever in making our negtiations- We opened a negotiation with a Scotch Banking House in London, the Messrs Boyds, the Agents of several of the Banks in Scotland.- The highest offer that they made us, was' at 80. subject however to the condition that they should have the exclusive right of taking the whole Loan at that price, prodded we would give them 14 days to go down to Scotland to form a combination among the Scotish Banks & Banlwrs to absorb the Loan, and were willing to pay down an earnest of £10,000, to be held in case the Contract was closed, in case it was not closed the money to be returned-for which services they stipuatrd for 10 per cent commission for themselYes, as our price was par for the Bonds
•No. 1453. 'No. 1424.
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