TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
508
comm1ss1oners. and who has done all he could to protect & serve his country. It will be recorded in history that you did this, and let m-.. ask who could have done more, with the means at command.
very truly yours James Love
[ Addressed] Genl. M. B. Lamar Austin Texas
[Endorsed] '
James Love, Galveston Apl 13th. 1841
No. 1997
1841 Apr. 14, J. HAMIL'l'ON, PARIS, [FRANCE] ·To [D. G.J BURNET, AUSTIN, TEXAS 60
Paris April 14th. 1841.
My Dear Sir, The public Papers inform me that in consequence of the lamented illness of President Lamar that you are at the helm of Affairs in Texas, 51 as therefore my business has not reached a point which enables me definitivly to make a communication to the Secretary of the Treasury, I deem it quite in place to drop you unofficially a few lines.- Such have been the intense engagemenfa, of the French Govt. from their European relations & the Session of their Chambers that on the proposition of a guarantee of our Loan for· further commercial ad- vantages that I could not obtain a decision of the Ministry .until a few Days since. This was unfortunately hastened by a l\feasure brought before the Chambers that the Govt. of France should guarantee the Bonds of the Rouen Rail Road Company, which the Ministry opposed from the largeness of the sum (a 100 Millions of Francs) and from the necessity of the Govt. itself being about to be a great Borrower.-Having refused to guarantee for their own Citizens, of course the difficulty pre- sented itself of guaranteeing for us--- l\Iore especially as it was decided that the guarantee could not be given without an appeal to the Chamber. I was therefore informed by l\L Guizot that notwithstanding the Govt. was sensible of the great advantage to France of my proposals yet they would have to withhold the direct pecuniary Guarantee But intimated that they would do anything short of this :Measure to facilitate my Operations. I therefore in consultation with l\fessrs. Laffite & Co have submitted a new p-rojet which stipulates for no new advantages or con- cessions to French Commerce but which I am willing to receive for those which have been granted as an equivalent. This projet is approved by M Guizot & the Minister of Commerce and is to be laid before the Ministry on the 23d. I think it will pass without difficulty. It will make a difference of 10 per cent in favor of the negotiation of our Bonds, or rather Lafittes Debentures founded on them.- and enable us to realize 60 Sixty instead of 50 per Cent.-for the 6 pr. Cent De- bentures. As Indiana Stock is at 55 & Illinois at 50 & Mississippi & '°A. L. S. °'Lamar was granted a leave from his office in December, 1840, and remained away until about March 1, 1841. Burnet acted during his absence. See South- weatern Historical Quarterly, XXIV, 209, footnote 97.
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