tract from its ownindependence and rights; all the sovereigns, of Europe having in,trust the sovereignties and independence of of the the fla flag; that if by an unpardonable weakness, and which in the eyes of posterity would be an in debble stain, if such a tyranny was allowed to be established into principles, and consecrated by usage, the English would avail themselves of it to assert it as a right, as they have availed themselves of the tolerance of government to establish the infamous principle, that the flag of a nation does not cover goods, and to give to their right of blockade an arbitrary extension, which infringes on the sovereignty of every state; we have decreed and do decree as follows.

I. Every ship, to whatever nation it may belong, that shall have submitted to be searched by an English ship, or to a voyage to England, or shall have paid any tax whatsoever to the English government, is thereby, and for that alone, declared to be denationalized; to have forfeited the protection of its king, and to have become English property.

II. Whether the ships thus denationalized by the arbitrary measures of the English government, enter into our ports, or those of our allies, or whether they fall into the hands of our ships of war, or of our privateers, they are declared to be good and lawful prize.

III. The British islands are declared to be in a state of blockade, both by land and sea. Every ship of whatever nation, or whatsoever the nature of its cargo may be, that sails from the ports of England, or those of the English colonies, and of the countries occupied by English troops, and proceeding to England, or to the English colonies, or to countries occupied by English troops, is good and lawful prize, as contrary to the present decree; and may be captured by our ships of war, or our privateers, and adjudged to the captor.

IV. These measures, which are resorted to only in just retaliation of the barbarous system adopted by England, which assimilates its legislation to that of Algiers, shall cease to have any effect with respect to all nations who shall have the firmness to compel the English government to respect their flag. They shall continue to be rigorously in force as long as that govern ment does not return to the principle of the law of nations which regulates the relations of civilized states in a state of war, The provisions of the present decree shall be abrogated and null in facts, as soon as the English abide again by the principles of the law of nations, which are also the prin ciples of justice and honour.

All our ministers are charged with the execution of the present decree, which shall be inserted in the bulletin of the laws. NAPOLEON.

On the 25th of November, 1807, an additional order in coun cil was issued, and on the 25th of March, 1808, an act of parlia ment passed, the object of both of which was to permit a trade be tween neutral nations (the only neutral nations then were the United States and Sweden) and France and her dependencies, on the condition that the vessels engaged in it should enter some British port, PAY A TRANSIT DUTY, and take out a license! And the British government affected to regard this arrangement as a favour conferred on neutrals!!!! This was fairly capping the climax.

It may not be unsatisfactory to the reader, to state the duties thus laid on the exports of the United States by a foreign nation. Well might Mr. Baring declare

"It is immaterial, whether it be a tax on stampts, or on cotton. This question has been the subject of a long and bloody war."

Berilla

Bark (Peruvian) Cochineal

Goods allowed to be bonded.

12 and upwards 11 78

Masts, &c. 6 inches under 8 5 per piece

Goods not allowed to be bonded, and upon which the home-consumption duties

must be paid on importation:

Anchors 40 per cent, on the value,

1 11

222

5 98

Annatto

12 8s 4d per cwt.

• Argol

5s

Ashes

10s

Oak bark

2s 6d

• Bread

4s

Prize goods prohibited.

$10 65

1 11

2 22

55

90

4 44

4.00

222

1 11

56

90

46 62

3 92

33

Goods not enumerated, but which may be used

in this country on the present duties 40 per cent.

A letter from Rathbone, Hughes and Duncan, of Liverpool, dated in the beginning of April, 1808, has this paragraph:

"These duties to attach to the cargoes of all vessels from the United States 10 those ports on the continent, which are under the influence of France, and dr rive in this country, in compliance with the orders in council of the 11, November."

A Synopsis of part of the Effects of these Duties.

A cargo of cotton, of 1000, bales, of 300 lbs. each, which is about the common weight, paying 9d. sterling; per lb. in England, would amount to the precise sum of 50,000 dollars. The same cargo of cotton at 14 cents, the average price for fine Louisiana cotton, would not cost at New-Orleans more than 43,500 dollars. Thus the exporter would have to pay $6,500 in London, as a derty for liberty to proceed to the continent, more than the original cost-to this might be added the various other charges of tonnage, &c. amoun amounting to about 2000 dollars more.

A cargo of tobacco may be said to consist of 400 hogsheads-for the sake of round numbers, we will suppose each hogshead only to weigh 1000 lbs. and the account stands thus-400,000 lbs. Tobacco, at 1d

sterling per pound, is 12,500 sterling, or

Tonnage, at 12s per ton on 400 tons, is 1240 sterling, or
Light money and various other charges and attendant ex-

penses, would amount to

Amount of tribute on a cargo

$ 11,100 00 1,065 09

800 00

12,965 00

Of the 80,000 hogsheads we generally exported, about 12,000 were consumed in the British islands. The rest went to the continent. Put them, as before, at 1000 lb.-each, and what is the amount of tribute on this single

article?

68,000 hogsheads tobacco, weighing each 1000 lbs. is 68,000,000

lbs at 1d sterling per pound, is 1425,000, ог

170 ships' tonnage, &c. at 2000 dollars each

$1,998,000 00

840,000 00

2,338,000 00

Amonnt of annual tribute on tobacco

A ship would carry about from 3000 to 3500 barrels of flour, say for the sake

of calculation, 6000 cwt.

6,000 cwt. at 5s sterling per cwt. amounts to 11500, or

Tonnage and charges, as above

Amount of tribute on one cargo of flour

8,525 60

A ship load of fish would cost about 3500 or 4000 dollars, including the ducies and charges.*

:

CHAPTER XXIII.

The orders in council of November 11, 1807, defended by Americans. Founded on the untenable plea of American acquiescence in the Berlin Decree. Enquiry into their causes and consequences by A. Baring, Esq. M. P.

P

ERNICIOUS as were the orders in council to the most vital interests of the United States-degrading as was the condition of paying a transit duty in English ports and unjust and unfounded as was the allegation on which these orders were predicated, there were defenders of them in this country-Americans born. Among the number were men in high and elevated stations, possessing a great degree of public confidence and political influonce. It is a most singular fact, that the cause of England has been far more ably supported in our debates, and in our political speculations and essays, than in London itself. There is no man of character or standing in society in that city, or in the British parliament, that has attempted to deny the magnitude of our wrongs. The ministry and their friends have palliated their proceedings by the miserable plea of necessity and of retaliation-a plea that Barbarossa, or Koulikan, or Bonaparte, could with

* For all these statements and calculations I am indebted to Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 3, page 79.

equal justice advance. But such respectable men as the Roscoes, the Whitbreads, the Barings, have bestowed on the outrageous measures of their government, the most unqualified reprobation. I have it not in my power at present to refer to the debates in parliament. But I perfectly well recollect, and such of my readers as have access to them will see at once, that the rectitude of the conduct of our government, and its mild endeavors to procure redress, have received the most unequivocal encomiums from some of the most illustrious characters in Great Britain.

The respectability of Mr. Alexander Baring is a matter of public notoriety throughout the commercial world. There is no man in England more attached to the honour and the interests of his country. His testimony has been, as I have said, uniformly borne in our favour, and against the enormous injustice of the orders in council-and as it cannot fail to have a weight proportioned to his talents, integrity, and character, I shall very freely quote from such an unexceptionable source.

The orders in council of Nov. 11, 1807, were, as we have seen, predicated upon our acquiescence in the Berlin decree. Mr. Baring having stated the fact, that this decree not having been put into operation against our commerce, we had no right to remonstrate against its, proceeds,

"Unless, therefore, his majesty's ministers have some information of which the public is not possessed, and which contradicts the very clear evidence the public do possess, we must conclude that the assertion in orders in council that America had been guilty of that acquiescence in the decrees of France, which was to draw down, and has drawn down upon her, our menaced retaliation, is totally void of foundation."†

The fallacy of the allegation of an acquiescence in the Berlin decree having been proved, Mr. Baring thus accounts for the Milan decree, which was the offspring of the orders in council of November 11, 1807.

"If what has been stated, be correct, that our orders in council are not justified, by any previous provocation, They must be evidently acts of original aggression; and France retaliated much in the same manner and with the same right as we ourselves should have done, had the Berlin decree been rigidly executed."

The following masterly analysis of the orders in council is taken from Mr. Baring's pamphlet.

"All trade directly from America to every port and country at war with Great Britain, or from which the British flag is excluded, is totally prohibited. In this general prohibition, every part of Europe, with the exception at present of Sweden, is included: and no distinction whatever made between the domestic produce of America, and that of the colonies, re-exported from thence!!!

"The trade from America to the colonies of all nations, remains unaltered by the present order. America may export the produce of her own country, but that of no other, to Sweden.

"With the above exception, all articles, whether of domestic or colonial produce exported by America to Europe, must be landed in this country [England] from whence it is intended to permit their exportation, under such regulations as shall be hereafter determined.

* See page 119. † Baring's Enquiry, page 70. + Ibid

"By these regulations it is understood that duties are to be imposed on all articles so re-exported. But it is intimated that an exception will be made in favour of such as are the produce of the United States cotton excepted.

"Any vessel, the cargo whereof shall be accompanied with certificates of French consuls abroad, of its origin, shall, together with its cargo, be liable to seizure and condemnation."*

It is here proper to make a solemn pause. The subject deserves the deepest, the most serious reflection. Let us examine this sketch, drawn by a masterly hand, beyond the reach of suspicion. Let us consider the despotic, the lawless claims it asserts the prostrate, the base, the despicable state it pla.. ces the commerce and the rights of a sovereign, an independent, and unoffending nation whose trade was of incalculable importance to the power thus daring to legislate for us, and destroy our dearest rights of sovereignty. When this is all fairly and duly weighed, let us correctly appreciate the conduct of so many Americans, who have asserted with a zeal worthy of a good cause, that England " has really done o commerce no essential injury!" The annals of the world produce nothing more indefensible-nothing more astor The end proposed by the British government in this dous project of usurpation, is thus ably sketched.

৩

pen

"The Americans are to bring to this country all the produce of their own, and all that of our enemies' colonies, which they export to Europe We are here to form a grand emporium of the costly produce of Asia and America, which is to be dispensed to the different countries of Europe, under such regulations as we may think proper; I suppose, according to their good behaviour. Taxes are to be raised from the consumers on the continent; and they are to be contrived with such judicious skill as to secure our own West India planters a preference to those of. Cuba and Martinique.";

"The American merchant, with the best intentions of trading legally, cannot always know, what this country permits; for we admit that upholding a general principle which we never enforce, we may and do vary our permission to neutrals under it as we please. Supposing him in this respect not liable to error, he is exposed to unjust decisions in our vice admiralty court-a danger of no common magnitude, if we are, to believe the assertion of lord Hawkesbury in the house of commons, the 29th of April, 1801, that of 318 appeals from these courts, only 35 of the condemnations were confirmed."

What a hideous picture of the rapacity and piratical proceedings of the British privateers is here exhibited! It is not unfair to suppose, that of the number of vessels captured and brought in for adjucation, one-fourth were cleared in the West-Indies. Admitting this calculation, the whole number of captures embraced in the statement of Lord Hawkesbury, was probably 420, of which about 100 were cleared in the West Indies-285 unjustly condemned there, and afterwards cleared in G. Britain and only 35 really and bona fide lawful prize -so that it appears, that of every twelve vessels brought in for trial, eleven were unjustly captured!

If

we had maintained and defended this doctrine boldly and fairly against. all nations, good arguments in favour. of it could not be wanting. But when Idem, page 12. † Mr. Pickering's letter to governor Sullivan, pape 12. Baring's Enquiry, page 16. Idem, page 43.