oduce so seized is very
generally the property of other persons, (frequently British subjects,)
who have advanced money to the planter on his growing crop; that British
and other shipping resorting to Bang-kok for the purchase of produce,
are compelled to buy from the King on his own terms, or to leave the
port in ballast; and finally, that these proceedings are in direct
opposition to the terms of an existing Treaty between Great Britain and
Siam. A Consul at Bang-kok, and a visit twice a year from one of the
ships of war cruizing in the China Sea and the Straits of Malacca, would
put an entire stop to His Siamese Majesty's unwarrantable proceedings,
as far as British subjects are concerned. Let Americans and others look
after themselves.

Ill the Dutch Colonies, also, I can testify from personal observation,
the British merchant is very frequently dealt with not less arbitrarily.
The Dutch Authorities are not content with prohibiting the importation
into their Colonies of warlike stores and opium, (which they have an
undoubted right to do,) but their regulations render a ship seizable,
that enters their ports with either of those forbidden articles on
board. This seems unreasonably hard and it puts the British merchant to
expense an trouble oftener than may be supposed. A ship bound from
London, Liverpool, or Glasgow, to Batavia and Singapore, (a very common
destination,) dares not receive on board as freight, either a chest of
Turkey opium, or a single Birmingham musket. If she does, she must give
up all idea of calling at Batavia, where she would be immediately
seized, for having such articles on board as cargo. Only four years ago,
the British barque Acdazeer, bound from Bombay to China, with a cargo
consisting of thirteen hundred chests of opium, was dismasted in a gale
in the China Sea, and bore up for the port of Sourabaya, which she
entered in distress, for the purpose of repairs, and for stores to
enable her to prosecute her voyage. My memory does not serve me so as to
enable me to state, whether the Acdazeer's visit to Java was before or
after the promulgation of the law prohibiting ships with opium and
warlike stores entering any of the ports of Netherlands India; but I
think it was _before_ that regulation was made public. Be that as it
may, the ship was in distress; and, as a matter of course, her Commander
thought he was entering a friendly port. His astonishment may be
conceived, when he was ordered by t