PUBLIC DEBT of FRANCE on the 1st of January, 1834. Bons Royaux and Treasury Bills out-standing on the 1st of Franos. Cents. 195,193,791 98 24,352,391 22 Advances from the Bank .. .. Securities deposited in the Treasury by public servants, contractors, &c., on which interest is paid, amounted on the 1st of January to annual charge of 9,669,236f. 85c. on a capital of Total (principal) SINKING FUND. 187,656,266 50 225,770,385 0 632,972,834 60 An account of the amount of Rentes standing in the name of the "Caisse d'Amortissement," on the 1st of January, 1834, deducting 32,000,000f. 5 per Cent. taken from this fund, and cancelled by the law of the 26th of June, 1833, viz.: Total amount of the Sinking Fund on the 1st of January: 63,557,477 1834. An Account of Rentes purchased by, and transferred to, the "Caisse d'Amortissement," in the year 1833: 77,353,203 91 4 ditto 3 ditto Rentes .. • Total amount of Rents purchased by the Sinking Fund, from Franes. 66,961,108 48,020,094 AN ACCOUNT OF THE GOLD AND SILVER COINAGE SINCE THE STATEMENT respecting AMERICAN BANKS whose SHAREs are THE MESSAGE of the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES to the CONGRESS. "Fellow Citizens of the Senate, and House of Representatives,-In performing my duty at the opening of your present session, it gives me pleasure to congratulate you again upon the prosperous condition of our beloved country. Divine Providence has favoured us with general health, with rich rewards in the fields of agriculture, and in every branch of labour, and with peace to cultivate and extend the various resources which employ the virtue and enterprise of our citizens. Let us trust that in surveying a scene so flattering to our free institutions, our joint deliberations to preserve them may be crowned with success. Our foreign relations continue, with but few exceptions, to maintain the favourable aspect which they bore in my last annual message, and promised to extend those advantages which the principles that regulate our intercourse with other nations are so well calculated to secure. The question of the north-eastern boundary is still pending with Great Britain, and the proposition made in accordance with the resolution of the senate, for the establishment of a line according to the treaty of 1783, has not been accepted by that government. Believing that every disposition is felt on both sides to adjust this perplexing question to the satisfaction of all the parties interested in it, the hope is yet indulged that it may be effected on the basis of that proposition. "With the governments of Austria, Russia, Prussia, Holland, Sweden, and Denmark, the best understanding exists. Commerce with all is fostered and protected by reciprocal good-will, under the sanction of liberal conventional or legal provisions. In the midst of her internal difficulties, the queen of Spain has ratified the convention for the payment of the claims of our citizens since 1819. In the course of execution on her part, a copy of it is now laid before you, for such legislation as may be found necessary to enable those interested to derive the benefits of it. Yielding to the force of circumstances, and to the wise counsels of time and experience, that power has finally resolved no longer to occupy the unnatural position in which she stood to the new governments established in this hemisphere. I have the great satisfaction of stating to you, that, in preparing the way for the restoration of harmony between those who have sprung from the same ancestors, who are allied by common interests, profess the same religion, and speak the same language, the United States have been actively instrumental. Our efforts to effect this good work will be persevered in, while they are deemed useful to the parties, and our entire disinterestedness continues to be felt and understood. The act of Congress to countervail the discriminating duties, levied to the prejudice of our navigation, in Cuba and Porto Rico, has been transmitted to the minister of the United States, at Madrid, to be communicated to the government of the queen. No intelligence of its receipt has yet reached the department of state. If the present condition of the country permit the government to make a careful and enlarged examination of the true interests of these important portions of its dominions, no doubt is entertained that their future intercourse with the United States will be placed upon a more just and liberal basis The Florida archives have not yet been selected and delivered. Recent orders have been sent to the agent of the United States at Havannah to return with all that he can obtain, so that they may be in Washington before the session of the supreme court, to be used in the legal questions there pending, to which the government is a party. Internal tranquillity is happily restored to Portugal. The distracted state of the country rendered unavoidable the postponement of a final payment of the just claims of our citizens. Our diplomatic relations will be soon resumed, and the long subsisting friendship with that power affords the strongest guarantee that the balance due will receive prompt attention. "The first instalment due under the convention of indemnity with the king of the Two Sicilies, has been duly received, and an offer been made to extinguish the whole by a prompt payment-an offer I did not consider myself authorized to accept, as the indemnification provided is the exclusive property of individual citizens of the United States. The original adjustment of our claims, and the anxiety displayed to fulfil at once the stipulations made for the payment of them, are highly honourable to the government of the Two Sicilies. When it is recollected that they were the result of the injustice of an intrusive power, temporarily dominant in its territory, a repugnance to acknowledge and to pay which would have been neither unnatural nor unexpected, the circumstance cannot fail to exalt its character for justice and good faith in the eyes VOL. LXXVI. of all nations. The treaty of amity and commerce between the United States and Belgium, brought to your notice in my last annual message, is sanctioned by the senate, but the ratifications of which had not been exchanged, owing to a delay in its reception at Brussels, and a subsequent absence of the Belgian minister of foreign affairs, has been, after mature deliberation, finally disavowed by that government, as inconsistent with the powers and instructions given to the minister who negociated it. This disavowal was entirely unexpected, as the liberal principles embodied in the convention, and which form the groundwork of the objections to it, were perfectly satisfactory to the Belgian representative, and were supposed to be not only within the powers granted, but expressly conformable to the instructions given to him. An offer, not yet accepted, has been made by Belgium to renew negotiations for a treaty less liberal in its provisions on questions of general maritime law. Our newly established relations with the Sublime Porte promise to be useful to our commerce, and satisfactory in every respect to this government. Our intercourse with the Barbary Powers continues without important change, except that the present political state of Algiers has induced me to terminate the residence there of a salaried consul, and to substitute an ordinary consulate, to remain as long as the place continues in the possession of France. Our first treaty with one of those powers, the emperor of Morocco, was formed in 1786, and was limited to 50 years. That period has almost expired. I shall take measures to renew it with the greatest satisfaction, as its stipulations are just and 2 A |