23 
manifested in the coarse of the negotiation 
whicji took place at Paris early in the sum- 
mer of the present year. When Lord 
Malmsbury, who was the plenipotentiary 
on the part of England, came to discuss 
that part of his mission which respected 
the Cape of Good Hope, he strenuously 
insisted on this settlement being ceded to 
the crowji of England. De la Croix, who 
acted in a similar capacity on the part of 
the French republic, as strongly insisted 
on its being restored to the Dutch, and 
in giving his reasons for making this requi- 
sition a cardinal point in the negotiation, 
discovered a very competent knowledge 
of the subject. He very sagaciously ob- 
served, that the Cape, in the hands of 
the Dutch, could be of very little use, 
except furnishing a convenient place for 
shipping to touch at, on their voyage to 
the East- Indies ; but in the hands of the 
English (said De la Croix) the southern 
territory of Africa would be colonized, and 
a new source of commerce in all probability 
arise, the advantages of which are incal- 
culable. Here the French plenipotentiary 
