EXTRACT from the Minister’s Letter to M. MITHON, on the Right of the Majors with regard to the Arms of dead Officers, and on his reply to a Memorandum in which it was proposed to declare nègres immovable property and to…

I AM satisfied with the assurance you give me that the Ordinance of 1689 concerning the Right of the Majors over the Arms of Officers at their death is observed at Saint-Domingue. You must continue to keep a hand on it there.

I examined with attention the reply you made to the Memorandum of the sieur d’Hauterive, Procureur-Général of the Conseil Supérieur of Martinique, on rendering Black people movable property and on the partition of Lands. His Majesty, to whom I gave an account of it, was satisfied with the reasons you indicated to me, which entirely destroy the proposal of this Procureur-Général. He wishes that what has been practiced until now be observed in this respect.