COMMUNICATIONS received at the Foreign Office, on the Subject of the Foreign and Domestic Trade, Agriculture, Population, Industry, Legislation, and Civilization of Hayti.-1826 to 1828. LIST OF PAPERS. No. 1826. Page 1. Mr. Consul-Gen. Mackenzie to Mr. Secr.Canning. Port-au-Prince, June 2. 660 The Secretary General of Hayti to the British Consul General... .June 1st. 661 3. Mr. Consul-Gen. Mackenzie to Mr. Sec. Canning. Port-au-Prince, Sept. 9. 662 8. Mr. Consul-Gen. Mackenzie to Mr. Secr. Canning. Port-au-Prince, Oct. 27. 674 Table of the Comparative Value of British Trade to the Open Ports of Hayti 10. Mr. Consul-Gen. Mackenzie to Mr. Secr. Canning. Port-au-Prince, Nov. 30, 674 674 A.--Return of Tonnage, and value of Imports into Hayti, 1825, 1826 1822 to 1826 B.-Exports from the Republic of Hayti, C.-Minor Articles of Export from Hayti, 1822 to 1826 683 683 683 11. Mr. Consul-Gen. Mackenzie to Joseph Planta, Esq. Port-au-Prince, Dec. 11. 684 12. Mr. Consul-Gen. Mackenzie to Mr. Secy. Canning. Port-au-Prince, Dec. 13. 685 1827. 16. Mr. Consul-Gen. Mackenzie to Mr. Secy. Canning. Port-au-Prince, July 2. 688 17. Mr. Consul-Gen. Mackenzie to the Earl of Dudley. London, 18. Mr. Consul-Gen. Mackenzie to the Earl of Dudley. London; A.-Constitution de la Colonie Française de St. Domingue.... B.-Constitution d'Haiti.. 9 Mai, 1801 .20 Mai, 1805 C.-Constitution d'Haiti, 27 Décembre, 1806, D.-General Table of Exports from Hayti, 1789 to 1801, & 1803 to 1826 E.-Return of exports from Port-au-Prince, 1818 to 1826 F.-Return of Produce exported from Cayes 1810 to 1812, & 1818 to 1826 1828. March 10. 688 March 31. 697 716 728 735 ... 759 760 and its Dependencies, 761 G.-Return of Produce exported from Cape ....1803 to 1826 762 H.-Return of Produce exported from Jacmel, 1818 to 1826 763 763 I.-Return of Produce exported from the late ....... No 1.-Mr. Consul-General Mackenzie to Mr. Secretary Canning. HAVING addressed a Letter to the Secretary General, in compliance with your Instructions directing me to claim, on the behalf of British Subjects, the enjoyment of civil privileges, as well as all immunities relating to religious worship, which are necessary for the satisfactory domiciliation of Subjects of one friendly State in the territories of another; I have the honour to enclose a Copy of General Inginac's answer, which states that all such protection and immunities have been hitherto freely accorded to British Subjects residing in Hayti, and that every reasonabic guarantee for their continuance shall be stipulated for in any Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Great Britain and Hayti. I have the honour to be, &c. The Right Hon. George Canning. CHARLES MACKENZIE. (Enclosure)—The Sec". General of Hayti to the British Consul-General. Liberté. République de Hayti. Egalité. Au Port-au-Prince, le 1 Juin, 1826. An 23 de l'Indépendance. B. Inginac, Général de Brigade, Secrétaire Général près son Excellence le Président d'Hayti, à Charles Mackenzie, Ecuyer, Consul Général de Sa Majesté Britannique en Hayti, au Port-au-Prince. Monsieur, J'AI reçu la Lettre que vous m'avez fait l'honneur de m'écrire sous la date du 31 Mai dernier, pour m'annoncer que vous êtes chargé par Sa Majesté Britannique de réclamer, auprès du Gouvernement d'Haïti, des privilèges civils et des immunités concernant les croyances religeuses, nécessaires à la satisfaction des Sujets d'un Etat ami qui resident dans un autre. J'ai soumis cette communication à Son Excellence le Président, qui m'a chargé de vous dire que les Sujets de Sa Majesté Britannique, résidans en Haïti, ont toujours joui des droits civils, tant pour leurs personnes que pour leurs propriétés, qui leur sont garantis par nos Lois, et qu'on est bien éloigné de songer à se départir de la bienveillance que notre Gouvernement a toujours fait éclater à leur égard. Quant aux immunités pour la croyance religieuse, les Sujets de Sa Majesté Britannique ont toujours eu entière liberté de conscience, et n'ont jamais été troublé dans leur culte; à cet égard la Convention d'Amitié et de Commerce à faire entre nos Gouvernemens respectifs, pourra stipuler toutes les garanties raisonnables. La déclaration que vous faites des sentimens de Sa Majesté Britannique sur la conduite que doivent observer ses Sujets résidans en Haïti, a été reçue avec un véritable plaisir. Son Excellence le Président ne doute pas que les Anglois n'aient l'intention de se conformer aux Lois et coutumes qui regissent le Pays; aussi ils doivent compter, comme par le passé, sur la bienveillante protection du Gouvernement. Je saisis cette occasion, &c. Le Consul-Général Britannique. B. INGINAC. No. 3. Mr. Consul-General Mackenzie to Mr. Secretary Canning. (Extract.) Port au-Prince, 9th September, 1826. I AM anxious to transmit all the information I have hitherto been able to collect upon matters of interest and importance in the State of Hayti. And although, from the shortness of my residence here, I have not yet been enabled personally to examine into the actual condition of the Country and of its Inhabitants, yet as I have collected information from every part of it, and have diligently sifted all the evidence on which it is founded, I hope that you will not deem it pre. mature in me to detail, generally, the result of the researches I have instituted. I beg, however, to reserve to myself the power of hereafter supplying whatever may be now defective, or of entering into such further statements as may appear illustrative, whenever I shall have personally completed my inquiries into the actual condition of Hayti and its Inhabitants. In the year 1801, when Toussaint l'Ouverture had succeeded in expelling his opponent (Rigaud,) a first attempt was made to establish a regular form of Government, and accordingly, on the 1st of July of the same year, Toussaint, under the title of Governor of the French Colony of St. Domingo, promulgated a Constitution and Laws for the French part of the Island, which were drawn up by some French and Italian Ecclesiastics, and adopted by the Legislative Body under his orders. In fact they consisted of a mere modification of the old Colonial Laws of France. They established the Roman Catholic as the religion of the French Colony, regulated the rights of Persons, confirmed the abolition of Slavery, fixed the forms of Justice, Municipal Institutions, formation of the Colonial Guard, both paid and unpaid, the Administration of the Finances, the Administration of Agriculture, the exclusion of all Emigrants (a list of whom was to be furnished by the Mother Country) from holding property, and various minor points. The Governor originated all Laws, which were passed without hesitation by the Central Assembly. The most important enactment was that affecting agricultural industry; the provisions of which were decidedly coercive. Indeed, if we look back to the state of the Country, it was necessary that labour should have been enforced, for during the preceding 7 years it had been almost entirely abandoned, and the Country reduced to a waste. By the Laws then passed, all the Cultivators were attached to the plantations to which they might first engage themselves, without the power of subsequently quitting them. They were compelled, under the same plantation regulations, to work as before; with this difference, that, instead of having every thing provided, they received (as I am told) nominally, a fourth of the produce of their labour, but in reality much less. This was deemed sufficient to furnish them with the necessaries of life. Such arrangements, in a Country so fertile, soon began to be productive of advantage; and the produce, which had in 3 years, from 1794 to 1796 inclusive, been reduced to the value of 8,606,720 livres, or of what it was in 1789, amounted in 1802, on an average of 2 years, to the value 46,266,300 livres, estimated at the prices of 1789, or of the produce of that year. The arrival of the French Army under General Le Clerc, early in the month of January, 1802, put a stop to this improvement. A war of extermination recommenced in all its horrors, aud continued until the final evacuation of the Island by General Rochambeau in November, 1803. As soon as this had taken place, Dessalines, who had succeeded Toussaint as General in Chief, with the assembled Haytian Chiefs, prepared a Declaration of Independence, which was proclaimed at Gonaives the 1st of January, 1804. At this time, Hayti, the original name of the Island, was adopted instead of that of St. Domingo. Dessalines, now Governor-General for life, professed to make Toussaint his model, and the same system of coercive labour was adopted, although not carried on with equal energy. He undertook an expedition for the conquest of the Spanish part of the Island; in which he failed, in consequence of the arrival of a French Squadron; on his return he was proclaimed Emperor, by the title of Jacques Premier, on the 8th of October, 1804. A Constitution, professedly the work of 23 Persons selected for that purpose, was formed. It declared Hayti free, sovereign, and independent; abolished Slavery; fixed the rights of Citizens; excluded all Whites from being Proprietors, except those who had been naturalized, with their Children; decreed that all the Subjects of Hayti should be distinguished by the generic name of Blacks, whatever might have been their colour; and compelled every Haytian to profess some mechanical trade. The Emperor was to approve and publish Laws, and to possess absolute control over every branch of the public service. A national and exclusive religion was rejected, and entire freedom of conscience granted. The agricultural system was precisely that of Toussaint, exacting labour for a fourth of the produce, and proscribing the use of the whip; but idleness was punished by imprisonment. The labourers were fixed to the property where they first established themselves, and could not change without a license from an official Agent of the Government. As nearly all the property had belonged to European Frenchmen, it was confiscated and transferred to the Government, who did not retain any part of it in their own hands, but let the estates at rents, fixed and proportionate to the number of Labourers, not the extent of soil: thus retaining the principle that has ever determined the value of property in Slave Colonies. The result of this system was as efficacious as it had been under his Predecessor, and although the whole population does not appear to have exceeded 400,000 Persons of all descriptions, or of what it had been under the French Government, the value of the produce, taken at the prices of 1789, amounted to 59,191,800 livres, exceeding the value of the produce in Toussaint's time by 12,925,500, and attaining nearly of what it had been in 1789. With the exception of the enforcement of labour and its consequences, no other beneficial arrangements seem even to have been contemplated. The violent death of Dessalines took place on the 17th October 1806; and on the 27th of the following December, Deputies named by the Emissaries of Christophe and Petion, appeared at Port-au-Prince to represent the different Departments, and formed the Constituent Assembly, from which emanated the present Constitution of Hayti as revised in 1816; the leading Articles of which may be classed under 13 general heads. The first of these may be considered as declaratory of the principles of the Revolution then effected: it declared that Slavery could not exist in Hayti; that the Executive was Elective, not hereditary, or belonging to any family; that the Republic should never interfere with or attempt to conquer other Countries; that the house of every man is his castle; and that no White Man could, after that declaration, acquire property in Hayti. The remaining 12 portions determined the mode of dividing the republic;-that all Indians, Africans, and their descendants, after one year's residence in Hayti, are entitled to the rights of citizenship; that the Roman-catholic religion is that of the State, though others are tolerated; that the Legislature be composed of a Chamber of Representatatives and of a Senate, the former to be elected by the People, and the latter, consisting of 24 members, to be chosen by the Representatives; that the President should originate all Laws, except money bills, and his final approval be indispensable; his office be for life, with the right of naming his Successor, subject to the sanction of the Senate, and the entire command of all the Military Forces vested in him; that Courts of Civil and Criminal Justice should be established; the Army organized, and agriculture protected; that the state of the public finances should be annually reported by the Secretary of State; and the right of revising the Constitution vested in the Senate. Minor points were also decreed, but with these it is unnecessary to overload this Communication. Having thus laid the foundation of a Government, the Assembly proceeded to elect a Chief, and offered the Presidency to Henri |