64

Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland,
26th May, 1854.

HIS Excellency the Officer Administering
the Government has been pleased to
direct that no applications for the Selection of
Crown Land will be received, unless each
application is accompanied by the regulated
and corresponding amount of Purchase
Money.

By His Excellency's command,
ANDREW SINCLAIR,
Colonial Secretary.

Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland,
31st May, 1854.

HIS Excellency the Officer Administering
the Government has directed that the
following Despatch, from Her Majesty's
Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies
should be published for general informa-
tion.

By His Excellency's command,
ANDREW SINCLAIR,
Colonial Secretary.

Downing-street,
24th February, 1854.

Sir, - I transmit, herewith, for your informa-
tion, copy of a circular instruction, which has
been addressed to Her Majesty's Diplomatic and
Consular Agents abroad, directing them, in con-
formity with an agreement made by Her Ma-
jesty's Government with that of France, to
afford protection to French subjects and com-
merce.

Instructions to the same effect will be forth-
with issued to Her Majesty's Naval Officers in all parts
of the world.

I have to direct you to conduct yourself in the
exercise of your powers as Governor of New Zea-
land in accordance with these instructions, so far
as they are applicable to your office ; to impress
on all the local authorities under your superin-
tendence the duty of affording similar protection
to French subjects and commerce, and of co-ope-
rating for that purpose with Her Majesty's Naval
authorities; and to report to me, without delay,
any measures which you may have deemed it ex-
pedient to take in reference to these instruc-
tions.

I have, &c., NEWCASTLE.

Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B.,
&c., &c., &c.

(Circular.)

Foreign Office,
February 23, 1854.

The communication which has recently been
made to you of the Correspondence on Eastern
Affairs which has been laid before both Houses
of Parliament, will have shown you that there is
every probability of an early commencement of
hostilities between Great Britain and France on
one side, and Russia on the other. That Corres-
pondence will also have shown you that the
British and French Governments, throughout the
difficult and complicated negotiations which have
preceded the existing state of affairs, have
earnestly and cordially acted together with a
view to avert the calamity of war, and that they

are equally prepared to act with the same
earnestness and cordiality for the preservation of
the Ottoman Empire, if the Emperor of Russia
should still be unwilling to negotiate for peace on
fair and reasonable terms.

The time has now arrived when it is incum-
bent on the two Governments to prepare for all
the contingencies of war; and among those con-
tingencies, it has been impossible for them to
overlook the danger to which their subjects and
their commerce on the High Seas may be exposed
by the machinations of their enemy, who, though
unable from his own resources materially to in-
jure either, may seek to devise means of offence
from countries whose Governments take no part
in the contest which he has provoked.

But it is a necessary consequence of the strict
union and alliance which exists between Great
Britain and France, that, in the event of war,
their conjoint action should be felt by Russia in
all parts of the world; that not only in the
Baltic, and in the waters and territory of Turkey,
should their counsels, their armies, and their fleets,
be united either for offensive or defensive
purposes against Russia, but that the same spirit
of union should prevail in all quarters of the
world, and that whether for offence or defence the
civil and military and naval resources of the
British and French Empires should be directed to
the common objects of protecting the subjects
and commerce of England and France from
Russian aggression, and of depriving the Russian
Government of the means of inflicting injury on
either.

For these reasons Her Majesty's Government
have agreed with that of His Majesty the Emperor
of the French to instruct their Civil and Naval
Authorities in foreign parts to consider their re-
spective subjects as having an equal claim to pro-
tection against Russian hostility; and for this
purpose, either singly or in conjunction with each
other, to act indifferently for the support and de-
fence of British and French interests. It may be
that, in a given locality, only one of the Powers is
represented by a Civil Functionary, or by a Naval
Force; but, in such a case, the influence and the
power of that one must be exerted as zealously
and efficiently for the protection of the subjects
and interests of the other as if those subjects and
interests were its own.

I have accordingly to instruct you, Sir, to act
in conformity with this principle. You will con-
sider it your duty to protect, as far as possible,
against the consequence of the hostilities in which
England and France may shortly be engaged with
Russia, the subjects and interests of France
equally with those of England; and you will
make known without reserve to the French Civil
and Naval authorities, with whom you may have
means of communication, any dangers to which
the interests of either country may be exposed,
or any opportunities with which you may be-
come acquainted of inflicting injury on the com-
mon enemy.

Instructions to the same effect will be sent by
the Government of France to its Civil and Naval
Authorities in foreign parts, and Her Majesty's
Government concur with that of France in antici-
pating the most favourable results from this decided
manifestation of the intimate union which pre-
vails between them, and which it is their earnest
desire should influence their Agents in all parts
of the world at a moment when they are about to
engage in a contest with the Empire of Russia
for an object of such paramount interest to
Europe as the maintenance of the Turkish Em-
pire.

I am, &c.,