Doc. No. 75. 



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verify the same, the holders are hereby required to present them at the 

 house of the undersigned, 31 Manchester street, Manchester square, any 

 day before the 20th of this month, between the hours of 12 and 4, in 

 order that the said bonds may be stamped^, authorised, and recognised as 

 legitimate and vahd for the future. 



*^M. ZEBADUA. 



^a^oNDON^ March 5, 1828." 



So that, by this notification, the bonds that have not the requisites cannot^ 

 in my opinion, be admitted on account against the State, though Mr. Ze- 

 badna said that he was authorized to recognise as national debt the sum 

 of «fl()3,000; and to know if they have the above mentioned requisites, it 

 is absolutely necessary to exhibit the public act of the operation practised 

 by Mr. Zebadua, or else the bonds themselves with the said legalization. 

 I added^ too, that in case of an arrangement the creditors ought to sup- 

 port the claim of Nicaragua to the port of San Juan, because it was one of 

 the revenues pledged in the original contract for the payment of the debt; 

 and that its occupation not only ought to be considered as a direct attack 

 against that State, but also as prejudicial to the creditors whose claim was 

 older than the Mosquito question. I did not even imagine that the 

 committee would refuse the exhibition, because I thought that, dealing 

 fairly and without other views, to forward the arrangement satisfacto- 

 rily for botli parties they would accede to a solicitnde founded in the 

 simplest principles of justice, and not at all contrary to their rights. I could 

 not, then, read without surprise the answer I received from Mr. Hammond^ 

 secretary of the committee, dated the 12th of March last, in which he 

 only manifests to me, that if they had sent me the notification published in 

 the Times y it was only to acquaint me with the formal recognizance, made 

 in the name of the repubhc, of the sum of of^'163,000; (according to the 

 translation of the article of the Times ^ published by Mr. Klee, the agent 

 of Messrs. Reid, Irving, & Co. in 1836, it was only J'lGO^OOO;) that the 

 formalities required in the notice were not necessary for the validity of the 

 bonds, because they were valid since their emission, and as such were 

 negotiated in the public markets; that the committee could not, even if 

 they were disposed, propose to the bondholders to exhibit them as a pre- 

 liminary for the arrangement; that they would be exhibited at the time of 

 the payment, as it was done when Costa Rica paid; that the committee, 

 as a duty towards the bondholders, urged a prompt arrangement for the 

 payment of the part of Nicaragua; and that if, before the 23d of March, I 

 did not present a proposition, they felt it their duty to put the correspond- 

 ence in the hands of Lord Pahnerston, and to ask his intervention to pro- 

 cure the desired arrangement. 



In consequence of this answer, I again addressed to the committee a 

 communication on the 31 st of March, expressing the sentiment that their 

 despatch of the 12th had given me, because they not only refuse a just 

 and amicable demand, but threatened me with the intervention of the 

 ministry, which I thought unnecessary in the present case; but if the 

 committee were determined to recur to Lord Palmerston, it would be sat- 

 isfactory to me to treat with him^ persuaded that his illustration would 

 duly appreciate the motives I had to delay the conclusion. I announced 

 at the same time that I was going to absent myself for a month from this 

 court; and that I hoped on my return to find them ready to continue our 



