THE British merchants interested in the opium delivered in the month of April, 1839, under warrant from the agents at Canton, to the order of Captain Charles Elliot, and by his order to Lin, the Imperial High Commissioner, conceive that they have a double claim to compensation for the property so delivered up: first, and immediately, against their own Government; and secondly, against the Government of China. The property was delivered to Captain Elliot by the consignees, upon the faith of a distinct guarantee of indemnity, entered into by him in his public character, as Her Majesty's Repre-| sentative in China; and the merchants to whom that guarantee was made now ask for its fulfilment. This is their primary claim; and they further look, at least, to the justice and power of the British Government, to enforce their legitimate claims against a foreign state. The great amount and value of the property in question, estimated at not less than£ 2,400,000; the complicated interests which would be involved in its loss, both Indian and European; and the peculiar hardship, under the actual circumstances of the transaction, of suffering that loss to fall exclusively upon private traders; appear to make it imperative upon Parliament to give a fair consideration to this case, and not to suffer either popular prejudice or financial difficulties to prevent justice from being done. A 2