Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 96

1850,

Letter from B. J. Bettelheim.

Reply of the Regent on several points.

73

"A respectful communication. Your several letters were received some days ago, and those parts which can be answered are all here- with replied to in order. On the 7th April, your letter was received, in which you say, that, 'In the presence of an English captain, it had already been agreed to permit you to hire horses and boats with your own money, &c.,” and that no obstruction would be put in the way of doing so.' When I was on board the English ship, there was no reference or assent to such a thing, and in saying so, you have certainly exceeded what I understood upon the matter. The horses of this country, as I told you before, are usually few in number, and the people themselves have not enough to transport their goods; whilst those which are reared for scholars and people to ride upon are ex- tremely few. As to boats, the people construct very few, and those which are made are only used to carry taxes, or on the public service; so that to allow a private person to use them is somewhat difficult, and to hire them out to an individual is still more out of the question. Even when one of your country's ships arrive, we have to suspend the public service of carrying articles in which they may happen to be engaged, and take off two or three boats for a while to go to and fro; this, however, is an occasional service, and must of course be at. tended to. But if we should permit them to be hired out to persons, they could not be employed on government service as they are needed, which would be highly detrimental. Therefore, although you have requested to hire boats, I have repeatedly begged to decline the request; and also again draw your attention to the circumstances of the case, and beg that you will stop hiring horses and boats.

"As you also observe, 'I am forcibly stopped, and hindered from going about,' I immediately ordered the officers to inquire into the matter, and it seems that you, Sir, are not forcibly stopped. It ap- pears, in fact, that when you go abroad into the streets, you say you are unwilling that the rustic people, the little children, and others, should violate all propriety and offend you; consequently, I have again

* The captain of H. B. M. brig Mariner. In my communication, I did not say permitted, which of course I could not do before the experiment was made. I only said that the object had been spoken of, and it was one of the topics men- tioned in my letter to Capt. Matheson.

When the French ships were here, their officers rode about in numerous par- ties, and when I went to Oonting on a visit to Admiral Cecille, accompanying the officers of a French merchant brig, we had the best horses, and at the post. houses had a choice of relays from among 20 to 30 horses.

VOL. XIX. NO. 11.

JO