sideration, be suffered to trade: I know it to have hitherto been productive of the greatest mischief: in fact, how is it possible for any man to act in an impartial manner with people who refer to him in a variety of commercial cases, wherein he himself is likely to be personally interested?-Besides, a consul who speculates is not only often induced to cultivate the friendship of these governments at the expense of his own, but he is unable to fulfil the duties of his situation, which are generally extremely multifarious. Too much cannot be said on the importance of sustaining the consular dignity both as to emolument and the prompt support of the administration at home. By the first he is secured from corruption; the second prevents our flag from being insulted, and affords us every advantage in the commerce, and from the resources of the country he is in. Having said thus much, in the hope that it will excite the serious consideration of men in power, justice to the character of our present consul, Mr. Langford, obliges me to add, that he has never been concerned in any commercial speculations whatever, during the eighteen years which he has served in Barbary; he is, consequently, little, if any thing, richer than when he came here. With this exception, that, as I understand to be a positive fact, he lost property to a very great amount in his Majesty's ship Hindostan, in 1804, when that ship was burnt in the Bay of Rosas, and has never received the smallest compensation from government, although both him

self and lady very narrowly escaped from the ship just before she blew up!-It would be a real advantage to the nation if a handsome gratuity was allowed to newly appointed consuls, and their salaries increased from eight hundred to a thousand, or even twelve hundred pounds, which would be amply sufficient on this coast for every purpose, and render all commercial views unnecessary.

I am next to treat of the disorganized and incongruous state of our vice consuls all over the coast, where we happen to have such appointments; for there are many places of considerable importance at which there is no British vice consul, and at others the place is occupied by a Jewish merchant, or an Italian, who may have been settled for some time in the country. The latter is naturally a subject of France, and the whole of them without any emolument whatever from the British government. They are appointed by the consuls-general, and remunerated by a tax levied on each ship, or vessels under our flag, that may chance to visit their port. Nothing can exceed the inefficiency of all these people whereever I have visited on this coast; they are perfect nonentities, or the laughing-stock of French agents and tools of their governors, without authority, or even the means of enforcing it. On the other hand, how is it with those of the enemy? they are all paid, and invariably people of some talent! I ought to have observed before, that the consuls-general of Buonaparte are

strictly forbidden to trade, are endowed with uncommon powers, and allowed a most liberal salary.

Would it not be highly useful to us, if forty or fifty of our own countrymen were selected to fill the situations of vice consuls? they might live on a trifling stipend, be permitted to traffic, and by learning the Moorish language soon encourage others to settle amongst these people; they would at all events enable our merchant vessels to avoid a thousand inconveniences to which they are now continually subjected on the coast. Should such a plan be ever adopted, they should be visited periodically by one of our men of war in the same way as proposed for the consuls-general.

The first object of importance to be considered with respect to the Barbary States, is thus in the choice of our consuls, and like the government of France, affording them proper and effectual support, when once appointed. This may be said to be the grand point upon which all our affairs turn; for without the utmost precaution in the one and the other, we shall ever be subject to the existing inconveniences and disadvantages arising from a want of the necessary attention to this subject. Experience, integrity, and firmness, are the ingredients which appear to me as requisite to form an unexceptionable representative of the British nation in this country. His efforts would not, however, be of the smallest utility, if not in

the confidence of his own government, and positively certain of their support; the entire want of this is the chief cause of our being so frequently ill used and spoliated, while the agents of France are enabled, without a single vessel of war to support them, to command the resources of a whole country. It has been a general complaint for many years, that whenever an English consul displayed firmness, and a determination to support the dignity of his country in Barbary, the chiefs have invariably made him the object of personal resentment, and after treating him with every indignity, and rendering his situation uncomfortable, have written to his government for the purpose of having him removed, to be replaced by a more tractable subject. A striking instance of this sort occurred at Tripoly about forty-six years ago, when the Honorable Mr. Frazer, after having experienced the most brutal treatment from Ali Bashaw, father of the present, was recalled in consequence of an alledged complaint to the minister of that time, Lord Halifax.. Mr. Frazer appears to have been very intimately acquainted with this country, and the characteristic policy of its chiefs in one of his letters, dated April the 17th, 1765, and addressed to the above mentioned nobleman, I recollect to have seen the following strong observation :-" Your lordship will, by this time, have a comprehensive idea of the Tripolitan manners, and the impossibility of procuring restitution of any thing con

siderable, without the interposition of fear or force; bring or give them any thing, you are the best power on earth; come to require any thing, words cannot express their artifices, their invectives against the consul, and infernal designs, supported by lies and breach of faith." The foregoing emphatical outline of these people is, if possible, more applicable to them now, than it was fifty years ago. Upon this Mr. Bruce, in one of the letters in his Appendix, No. XXIII, after complaining of the Bashaw's neglect in not having sent an escort as he promised, to convey him to Tripoly from the frontiers, by which four of his men were killed, and his own life considerably endangered, has the following interesting passage" I cannot mention this gentleman, without regretting that he is, as I hear, recalled upon a complaint of the Bashaw of Tripoly, who, after many other irregularities, at last confined him to his house. This grand complaisance to these Barbary gentlemen, who answer the complaints for national grievances by personal exceptions against the consul, will soon have the effect to make neutral freighters believe that our flag is insecure and without protection, and will, in the end, certainly throw all this caravan trade into the hands of the French, who support their consul and colours with the utmost spirit, both at Tunis and Tripoly." Mr. Frazer's case excited the indignation of every European consul in Tripoly; all of whom communicated the circumstance to