of these has been paid; the second, although
due, had not at the date of our last advices been received, owing, it
was alleged, to embarrassments in the finances consequent on the civil
war in which that nation is engaged.

The payments stipulated by the convention with Denmark have been
punctually made, and the amount is ready for distribution among the
claimants as soon as the board, now sitting, shall have performed their
functions.

I regret that by the last advices from our charge d'affaires at Naples
that Government had still delayed the satisfaction due to our citizens,
but at that date the effect of the last instructions was not known.
Dispatches from thence are hourly expected, and the result will be
communicated to you without delay.

With the rest of Europe our relations, political and commercial, remain
unchanged. Negotiations are going on to put on a permanent basis the
liberal system of commerce now carried on between us and the Empire of
Russia. The treaty concluded with Austria is executed by His Imperial
Majesty with the most perfect good faith, and as we have no diplomatic
agent at his Court he personally inquired into and corrected a
proceeding of some of his subaltern officers to the injury of our consul
in one of his ports.

Our treaty with the Sublime Porte is producing its expected effects on
our commerce. New markets are opening for our commodities and a more
extensive range for the employment of our ships. A slight augmentation
of the duties on our commerce, inconsistent with the spirit of the
treaty, had been imposed, but on the representation of our charge
d'affaires it has been promptly withdrawn, and we now enjoy the trade
and navigation of the Black Sea and of all the ports belonging to the
Turkish Empire and Asia on the most perfect equality with all foreign
nations.

I wish earnestly that in announcing to you the continuance of friendship
and the increase of a profitable commercial intercourse with Mexico,
with Central America, and the States of the South I could accompany it
with the assurance that they all are blessed with that internal
tranquillity and foreign peace which their heroic devotion to the cause
of their independence merits. In Mexico a sanguinary struggle is now
carried on, which has caused some embarrassment to our commerce, but
both parties profess the most friendly disposition toward us. To the
termination of this contest we look for the establishment of that secur