APPENDIX NO. VIII.

The following letter from her Britannic majesty's chargé d'affaires, Captain Charles Elliott, to Hon. Anson Jones, secretary of state of the Republic of Texas, will speak for itself. That both the President and secretary of state made these assurances to Captain Elliott they did not deny; but the secretary in answer says, "Whatever has been done, therefore, in relation to this subject, has been in obedience to the requirements of their acts" (the Congress).

To the Honourable Anson Jones, &c., &c.
Washington, on the Brazos

The undersigned, her Britannic majesty's chargé de affaires to the Republic of Texas, has lately had the honour to acquaint Mr. Jones that her majesty's government was engaged in continued efforts to induce the government of Mexico to acknowledge the independence of Texas; and he has now the gratification to add that renewed communications have taken place between the governments of her majesty and that of the King of the French, and that his majesty has expressed his concurrence in the purposes of the queen, and signified his pleasure to command the French minister at Mexico to join his continued friendly assistance to that of her majesty's representative.

But, adverting to the proposals of the government of the United States respecting annexation, to the recent mission of distinguished citizens of Texas to Washington on the Potomac, and to the impression so general [483] in Texas that negotiations having that object in view are either in progress or in contemplation, the undersigned finds it his duty to express the hope that the government of Texas will furnish him with explanations on the subject for transmission to her majesty's government. He is sure that they will be made in that spirit of frank and friendly unreserve which has always characterized the intercourse of the two governments.

It must be unnecessary to say that the undersigned is perfectly aware of the President's personal opinions on this subject, and he has not failed, agreeably to the President's wish, to communicate to her majesty's government his excellency's determination to sustain the independence of the Republic, and his excellency's confident hope that the people would uphold him in that course. Indeed, referring to the conferences which the undersigned had the honour to have with the President and Mr. Jones at Galveston during last autumn, he can suppose that the mission to Washington of the gentlemen in question has been directed by a wise desire to avoid any cause of offense or irritation to the government of the United States, and to explain with frankness that the government of Texas could not entertain the subject at all, even if all other obstacles were removed, after the former rejection of such an arrangement of the United States, and wholly without reason, to know that the Senate of the United States would ratify now or in future.

The Congress of Texas, however, has met and separated since the date of the communications to her majesty's government to which the undersigned has referred, and the President will feel with force that it is just and necessary, in the present appearance of circumstances, that there should be no room for the least uncertainty on the part of the governments engaged in the behalf of Texas at Mexico; for it is not to be supposed that they could continue to press the government of Mexico to settle upon one basis while there was any reason to surmise that negotiations were either in actual existence or in contemplation proposing a combination of a totally different nature. It is manifest, on the other hand, that a distinct disavowal on the part of the government of Texas of any intention to consent to such a scheme, either now or perspectively,