CHAPTER VI. AUTOGRAPH LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT TO THE PRINCE REGENT.-EMIGRANTS FROM ENGLAND TO THE UNITED STATES.-DINNER AT MR. WILLIAM VAUGHAN'S. -DINNER AT MR. INGLIS'S.—MR. WILBERFORCE.-DR. JOHN. SON.-DINNER AT THE SPANISH AMBASSADOR'S.-LEVEE AT CARLTON HOUSE.-SPECIAL AUDIENCE OF THE PRINCE REGENT.-CONVERSATION ON AMERICAN INTERESTS AT THE LEVEE. May 19. Having received from the Secretary of State an autograph letter addressed by the President to the Prince Regent, in answer to one addressed by the Prince to the President, announcing the death of the Queen, I wrote the following note to Lord Castlereagh. MY LORD, London, May 19, 1819, 51, Baker Street. I have received from the Secretary of State, a letter addressed by the President of the United States to His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, in answer to one from His Royal Highness to the President, dated the sixteenth of November last. Having the President's directions to deliver this letter, a copy of which is enclosed, I have to request that your lordship will be so good as to ask on my behalf the honor of a special audience of his Royal Highness, or inform me in what other manner it may be the pleasure of His Royal Highness that it should be presented. I have the honor to be, with distinguished consideration, The Right Honorable obedient Servant, Lord Viscount Castlereagh, RICHARD RUSH. His Majesty's principal May 21. Receive the following in reply: The undersigned, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Mr. Rush's letter of the 19th instant, enclosing the copy of a letter of con dolence from the President of the United States to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, on the death of Her late Majesty the Queen; and requesting an audience of his Royal Highness for the purpose of delivering the original. The undersigned hastens to acquaint Mr. Rush, that the Prince Regent will grant him an audience for that purpose on the next Levee day; and requests he will accept the assurances of his high consideration. Foreign Office, CASTLEREAGH. May 21. Few subjects continue to press more frequently, and I add needlessly, upon my time in this capital, sometimes by personal applications, but oftener by letters, than that of emigration to the United States. I am heavily tasked for information on this subject; sometimes even called upon to give advice! The subjoined answer, sent to-day, to one of these applications, is given, as illustrative of the mode in which I deal with all. SIR, Legation of the United States, I received your letter of yesterday's date, and have to say, that I have no authority to treat with you upon the subject to which it relates. The United States have never heretofore, by any direct or indirect interference on the part of their government, invited emigrants from other countries to their shores. Their laws, it is true, are in a high degree liberal towards the foreigner, giving him full protection on his arrival, and clothing him afterwards with the rights of a citizen upon easy terms. But they leave him wholly to his own impulse whether to go or not, abstaining from all engagements or promises with him beforehand, beyond those which their permanent laws imply. I am not at present aware of any considerations connected with the late acquisition of the Floridas, to authorize an expectation that there will be any departure by the United States from this, their habitual, course of policy; and, therefore, I do not think it necessary, even if I felt at liberty, to transmit your proposals to my government. The climate and soil of those provinces, may indeed favour the cultivation of the articles you have mentioned; but this has already been more or less the case with other parts of the territorial dominion of the United States. In affording you this early and unreserved answer, I have the honor to remain Your obedient servant, To MR. MELTON. 8 RICHARD RUSH. May 25. Yesterday we dined with Mr. William Vaughan, residing at Clapham, a merchant of great worth, long and well known for his kindness and hospitalities to Americans. To me and my family, they were extended with great cordiality and warmth. The party consisted of a few of his neighbors, all my family, and Mr. and Mrs. ***, a well informed couple, who gave to conversation a sprightly and, in part, literary turn. They had recently been to Brighton, the sea-shore residence of the Prince Regent, and visited the Pavilion, a sort of marine palace built by the Regent; of the classic architecture of which fame, it is true, does not give the best account, being fashioned after Chinese models, or that of the Kremlin at Moscow; or partaking of both. With the mention of this building, the Prince Regent himself became a topick, and was spoken of without any great reserve; the disposition to do which, is not uncommon when his name comes upon the tapis, out of government circles, and those favorable to the ministry. There is no rule to which I hold myself more strictly, than that of not intermingling with party politics in this kingdom. Silence is my resource on any signs of that kind of conversation breaking out; more especially when members of the government or court to which I am accredited, are aimed at. Our benignant host |