.^ # ^ \ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 1.1 «a ..„ 1 2.0 140 m, 1^ m i^ < 6" ► :^^>i Pliotographic Sciences Corporation 33 WIST MAIN STRUT WHSTER.N.Y. MSM (716) •73-4503 CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHIVI/iCIVIH Collection de microfiches. Canadtan Institute for Historical Microriproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques Tschnicai and Bibltographic Not««/Not«« tachniquM at bibliographiquas Th« Institute has attamptad to obtain tha bast original copy availabia for filming. Faaturas of this copy which may ba bibliographically uniqua. which may altar any of tha imagas in tha reproduction, or which may significantly change tha usual method of filming, ere checked below. D D n D D D D Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur I I Covers damaged/ Couverture endommagAe Covers restored end/or laminated/ Couverture restourAe et/ou peiliculAe r~~| Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture manque □ Coloured maps/ Cartes gAographiquas en couleur Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) I I Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur Bound with other material/ Reli^ avec d'autres documents Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion along Interior margin/ La re llure serrde peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distortion le long de le marge int^rieure Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajouttes lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, mais. lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont pas ith fiimtes. Additional comments:/ Commentaires supplAmentaires: L'Institut a microfilmA le mellleur exempleire qu'll lui e AtA possible de se procurer. Les details de oet exempleire qui sent peut-Atre uniques du point de vue bibliogrephique, qui peuvent modifier une imege reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une modificetion dens le mAthode normale de filmege sont indiquAs ci-dessous. T t( D Coloured pages/ Pages de couleur I — I Pages damaged/ D Pages endommagAes Pages restored and/oi Pages restaurAes et/ou pelHculdes Pages discoloured, stained or foxet Pages dicolorAes, tachetdes ou piquies Pages detached/ Pages d^tach^es Showthrough/ Transparence Quality of prir Qualit^ inigaie de I'impression Includes supplementary materii Comprend du materiel supplAmentaire Only edition available/ Seule Mition rlisponible r~~~|' Pages restored and/or lamineted/ r~7| Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ I I Pages detached/ r~yt Showthrough/ I I Quality of print varies/ I I Includes supplementary material/ I I Only edition available/ T P o fi C b tl si o fi si o Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to ensure the best possible image/ Les pages totalement ou partiellement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, etc., ont 6X6 fiimies 6 nouveau de fapon d obtenir la meilleure image possible. Tl si Tl w di ei bi ri| re This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est film6 eu taux de rMuction indiqu* ci-dessous. 10X 14X 18X 22X 26X 30X s/ 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X ■ils du difier vine lage Th« copy filmad h«r« hat b««n raproduead thanks to tha ganaroaity of: Library of tha Public Archivas of Canada Tha imagaa appaaring hara ara tha bast qu3?-ity posslbia considaring tha condition and iaf ;rdiiity of tha originai copy and in xaaping with tiMO filming contract spacif ications. Originai copias in printad papar covars ara filmad baginning with tha front covar and anding on tha iast paga with a printad or ilidstratad impraa- sion, or tha bacic covar whan appropriata. Ali othar originai copias ara filmad baginning on tha first paga with a printad or iliustratad impras- sion. and anding on tha last paga with a printad or iliustratad imprassion. Tha last racordad frama en asch microficha shall contain tha symbol -^> (moaning "CON- TINUED"), or tha symbol V (moaning "END"), whichavar applias. IVIaps, platas. charts, ate, may ba filmad at diffarant raduction ratios. Thosa too larga to ba antiraly includad in ona axposura ara filmad baginning in tha uppar laft hand cornar, laft to right and top to bottom, as many framas as requirad. Tha following diagrams illustrata tha mathod: L'axamplaira film* f ut raproduit grica i la g4n4ro8it4 da: La bibliothAqua das Archivas pjbliquas du Canada Las imagas suK^antaa ont 4t4 raproduitas avac la plus grand soin. compta tanu da la cokidition at da la nattat* da l'axamplaira film*, at an conformity avac las conditions du contrat da filmaga. Las examplairas originau: dont la cbuvartura en papiar ast ImprimAa sont filmAs an commandant par la pramiar plat at an tarminant soit par la darnlAra paya qui comporta una amprainta d'imprassion ou d'iSiustration, joit par la sacond plat, salon la cas. Tous las autras axamplairas originaux sont filmte an comman9ant par la pramlAra paga qui comporta una amprainta d'imprassion ou d'illustration at an tarminant par la darnlAra paga qui comporta una talla amprainta. Un das symbolas suivants apparaltra sur fa darnlAra imaga da chaqua microficha, salon la cas: la symbols -^> signifia "A SUIVRE", la symbols V signifie "FIN". Las cartas, planchas, tablaaux, ate, pauvant Atra f ilmte A das taux db reduction diff«rants. Lorsqua la documant ast trop grand pour Atra raproduit an un saul clich*, 11 ast film* A partir da I'angia supAriaur gaucha. da gaucha A droita. at da haut an bas, an pranant la nombra d'imagas nicassaira. Las diagrammas suivants iliustrant la mAthoda. ata Hure, : 2X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 .. ■( '■« f . U' f- 4 ,:ii, so: hi V'-s-'vC 't> ;. anticipation:. t'»-v fc ^ ■-^ 1 ■ . i- ^■■J or 1^ -'¥v, ON Tite '5? Xa,lj.t t>eelsratton of dPoiiietnment 6p ' }*' The 9th of JANUARY, i813. ♦ , i ,, UN THE >' AMMICAN national INTELimENCER, •#•■. .Festinaro nocet, uocet et Cunctatio sape ; * . -.^ Tempore^uaeque ttjit^ qui facit, ille sapil, " •"t ^•a X V"- in ♦ > PRiNtED BY A. J. VAlIPY, ' :^> ^TOOKE'^ COt;R;i% CHANCERY LA^S. 'i ^- *ii<#fW- ►,-l?t-.--';ll» ■"> SOLD J)y VNDRRWOOD, FLEET STREET; AND ALt OTHE^ BOOKSELLERS, • r ;l 1813, * .i.'j^-^v-t .."^rjr^TyF -»-"'«^' -.- ,,t(»-.*w — ^ji%.4tt^-'^....iik-.. '' "^'"' '.<-i.«i:. • ^ e* ■,'L /f- 'Z... tr 1^ . . .•. . <( ey^-r. ^(/^L- •c•' -'if-^-* , .(^ ,• « / /* 4, r >:.f. / ;;^^j-<>. jr /■-p I.J t^ ..••». -3^ / 'It^ic 2--.^-i ■^''if'-f.'f f^',r / ^^'^, , r ^-^/ v.. - <^£-f J .^^i,.€. <-■ .p -»^ «^ - f. t. ■ r. ■■/■' ^ ^^, re ->';< -•''-K. « l^.„ / -> ;<-■ / • / -i » t -»• ^ *. ey^^- •r--^^ -if-^' ) -^•^ ■>■>(, -:>/^- I. ■ <7 • '• <^< ^ .t >-2-- / ? »^' €:.-:.. ^*. <•• y ^-^. -•■■' /f \/ ./^' V V'«r -ai.'^ £,<•-.<..,./' "^ /^ ' '' <- . ^ X ' •«« ■/k,.. ■ *'' A. • < «r . ^ .^■•«'- < -~ ■c:..c'- ■<■ f ^- t «-*•. C- ^-^ '.>.■ i^'f'f V'- '/"• /•*:-V- . ^ r^\. r A K tf' -W/' /. V,-' ... ) PREFACE. ^4uB2 alteram partem is a maxivn of soine anti- quity, and of such iiniver&dlity thnl, from the sage to the schoolijoy, it is uniibniily allowed tliat no cause can be fairly decided uithout it. Qui stafuit aliquid^ parte hiaudita altera, cequum licet statuerit, hand (iquus e^t. It is to be regretted th?' the i^reat aliairs of Na- tioiii «"ri.rji)ot be brought within the compass of this "^^ rule, and, considering the imporiance of tlie Ameri- can Question, I confess, I ahouid prefer waiting for the reuKirks of tlie Government of the United States, 0- i\x Dechiration of the 9tb ultirno, to discussing i diis day. As tl)e'3e cannot be had, however, 1 have endea- . vouicd to provide a substitute m the shape of an American Newspaper Comment on that act. IV PREFACE. It suppoiies a Coinnientutor of some candor, and moderation ; not violently in love with our measures, but desirous of Peace with us. No stutesmun, nor partizan of the Government; but a culler of authentic papers ; — affecting to contradict nothing that can, and to assert nothing that cannot, be proved. February 18:h, 1^13. ' m ANTICIPATION OF MARGINAL NOTES, &c i Paragrapb l.-^" The earnest endeavonn of the Prince Rege-^t to preserve the relations of peace and amity with the United States of America having unfortunately failed, his Royal Highuefis, acting in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, deems it proper publicly to declare the causes and origin of the war, in which the Government of the United States has com- pelled him to engage." Have any such been shown } — Your Government has adopted no I measure at all calculated to avoid the long threatened War; but I such as it was reluctantly compelled to adopt by the cries of the 1 liKation; and this in two cases liable to objection; 1st, as not ex- j« illicitly renouncing the illegal Blockades ; and 2dly, in reserving the T ight of restoring the Orders in Council on a contingency depending n .|0t on America, but on France. ^i Sd Par. — '* No desire of conquest or other ordinary motives of aggression, fa been, or can be with any color of reason, in this case, imputed to Great |ritain ; that her commercial interests were on the side of peace, if war could ive been avoided, without the sacrifice of- her maritime rights, or without « li injurious submission to France, is a truth which the American Government wjtM not deuy." Take away this parenthesis and the fact asserted here that the com- fTjercial interests of Great Britain were on the side of Peace, is a ti'uth which the American Government wil| not deny. — Neither is it probable that any Government can be mad enough to contemplate conquests in An^erica three times as populous and ten times as power- ful as she was when you made the attempt to keep her in a state of subjugation. 3d Par. — " His Royal Highness does not, however, mean to rest on the favorable presumption, to which he is entitled. He is prepared by an exposi- tion of the circumstances which have led to the present war, to show that Oreat Britain bat throughout acted towards the United States of America with A s a spirit of amity, forbearance, and conciliation ; and to demonstrate the inad- missible nature of those pretensions which have at Icrt^gtli unhappily involved the two conntries in war." The spirit of amity, forbearance, and conciliation, liere jjenerally asserted, and the inudmiisiblc nature of the Aniericn.j prelensions, will be adverted to as lluy present themselves in ihe sequel. 4th Par. — " It is weil known to the world, that it has been the invariable object of the Ruler of France to destroy the power and independence of the Hritish Empire, as the chief obstacle to the accomplishment of his ambition* designs." What has America to do with that? just so much and no more than with the equally well known object ot the ruler of Great Britain to destroy the power and independence of the French EmpMP^; »• '• nothing al all. {t# 5th, 6th, and 7th paragraphs* answered in the 4th. 8th Par.—" With this view, by the Decree of Berlin, followed by that of Milan, he declared the British territories to be in a state of blockade ; and that all commerce, or even correspondence, with Great Britain was prohi- bited. He decreed that every vessel and cargo, which had enter d, or waa found proceeding to a British port, or which, under any circums'iuices, had be^n visited by a British ship of war, should be lawful prize ; tie. declared all British goods and produce, wherever found, and however acqi^red, whether coming from the Mother Country or from her colonies, sub; .ct to confisca^ tion ; !ie further declared to be denationalized, the flag of all neutral ships that should be found offending against these his Decrees ; a' d he gave to tbia project of oniversal tyranny, the name of the Continental 'system." / Here the invasion of Neutral Rights is begun at the wrong end ; and two French Decrees f.r^ 'brought together, between which two British Orders in Council i.i'orvened. The Decree of Berlin wa'' j preceded by, and predicated upon, the Order of Blockade of the l6tl- .t of May, 1806, and the Decree of Milan was subsequent to the Orde^ "i in Council of January and November, 1807, and was a direct coi «- sequence of the latter. Our Government indeed have not allowed th. *e invasion of their rights by one Belligerent to justify that by the otheri f and have therefore, in the resistance they have made to them mu1:tl * ally, and their proposals to each for accommodation, fortunately fo^^f your Ministers, sua si bona noriiit, put the priority of aggression oeit of the question. The Blockade of May, 1806', was not accompanic d by that adequate and stationary force, which every writer on the sul'- ject in the law of Nations, and none more than the very profound and learned Judge at the head of your Court of Admiralty, have pro- nounced necessary to constitute its legality. — It was therefore illegal.> | — We are aware of the construction put upon this Act by the admi^' nistration that issued it, and we are not aware of any actual injury having resulted from it to the United States under that administra- » See End. tion. But whatever may have been the intention of Mr. Fox in res. pec t to the application of a sufficient force to tie stations inciiulcd in that noti6cation, it is notorious that no such force ever was so ap- plied, or mainiained in the requisite strictness to contirn) its legality. And it is not less notorious that the succeeding udniinistrution, con- Btitutingthe greatest part of the present Ministry, predicated on this pretext their right to extend by prochimation only iheir inhibition of neutral trade with the Knemy's ports, before which tlure was not ostensibly, or even avowedly, a single ship of war ; and proceeded under such proclamation to the real confiscation of every ship they could find proceeding to such destination. The name that Bonaparte chose to give to his system, is of little im- portance ; but since it is mentioned it may be as well to observe that it has no reference to America.— The Continental System evidently referred to those states upor> the Continent of Europe, which by coiv» quest or treaty, were brought to the adoption of his views, 9th paragraph,' refer to paragraph 8. lOth Par. — " Under circumstances of unparalleied provocation, his Ma* jesty had abstained from any measure which the ordinary rules of tlie Law of Nations did not fully warrant. Never was the maritime superiority of a Belligerent over bis enemy more complete and decided. Never was the op- {losite Belligerent so formidably dangerous in his power, and in his policy, to he liberties of all other nations. France had already trampled so openly and ■ystematieally on the most sacred rights of neutral powers, as might well have justified the placing her out of the pale of civilized nations. Yet in this extreme case. Great Britain had so used her naval ascendancy, tliat her ene- my could find no just cause of complaint ; and in order to give to these law- less decrees the appearance of retaliation, the Ruler of France was obliircd to advance principles of maritime law unsanctioned by any other autJioirity than his own arbitrary wilb" The Rights of Neutrals depend not on the comparative power of the Belligerent ; — they have nothing to do with it. And in respect to the principlto of maritime law advanced by the Ruler of France, to say that America had nothing to do with them is saying too little. They were not only not adopted by America, but absolutely and dis- tinctly disavowed, as well in her treaty with this country, as in a diplomatic correspondence of so recent'a date, and so spirited a style that it is utterly inconceivable that any member of the administration can have forgotten it.^ JJth Par, — ** The pretexts for these decrees were, first, that Great Britain bad exercised the rights of war against private persons, their ships, and goods ; as if the only object of legitimate hostility on the ocean wcrs tlie > See End. * See on this subject a small Pamphlet, entitled, " A letter from a Calm Observer to a Noble Lord, on the subject of the late declaration, relative to the Orders in Cuunetl." ((jale and Curtis, 181ii!.) public properhjT oft lUte, or «s if the Edicts and the Court* of France itaclf nad not at all tiraei enforced thin rixUt with peculiar -rigor ; secondly, tliat the British orders of blockade, instead of bein^ confined to fortified towns. had, as France asserted, been unlawfully extended to commercial towns and ports, and to the mouths of rivers ; and thirdly, that they had been applied to places, and to coasts, which neither were, nor could be actually blockaded. The last of tliese clmrges is not founded on fact ; whilst the otiie^.^, even by the admission of the American GovcrnuicDt, are utterly groundless in point of law." Here it is admitted thai the American Government disavow Bona- parte's principles of Maritime Law. — 'I'he knowledge of this fact it not derived from any document subsequent to the declaration of the 21st of April last. Why then was America insulted in that declara- tion by being called to disavow them ? " The British Orders of Blockade, had, as France asserted, been unlawfully extended to commercial Towns and Forts, and to the mouths of Rivers; and thirdly, they had been applied to places, and to coasts, which neither were, nor could be actually blockaded. The last of these charges is not founded on fact." Does this assiertion apply to the " neither were," as well as to the ** nor could be f VVhat a miserable equivoque! — Ihat the proclamation extended to places that were not blockaded is beyond all duubt, but, that they could be blockaded, at least, one at a time, will not be disp.^ted. The actual is the only legal blockade. For this the Neutral foregoes bis Trade to the port, whose entry is manifestly dangerous, allowing the Belligerent to distress his Emmy into reasonable terms of peace. But if this distress which is the essence of the Right cannot be main- tained ; and still more if instead of distressing you are supplying the Enemy yourself, you caunot expect the Neutral to forego his trade. Par. 12. — " Against these decrees, his Majesty protested and appealed ; he called upon the United States to assert their own *'ights, and to vindicate their independence, thus menaced and attacked; and as France had declared, that she would confiscate every vessel which should touch in Great Britain, or be visited by British ships of war, his Majesty, having previously issued^ the Order of Jiuiuary, 1B07, as an act of mitigated retaliation, was at length compelled, by the persevering violence of the enemy, and the continued ac* quiescence of neutral powers, to revisit, upon France, in a more effectual manner, the measure of her own injustice; by declaring in an Order io Council, bearing date the 1 1th of November, 1807, tliat no neutral vessel should proceed to France, or to any of the countries, tVom which, in obedience to the dictates of France, British commerce was excluded, without first touching at a port in Great Britain, or her dependencies. At the same time his Majesty intimated his rcadiUess to repeal the Orders in Council, whenever France should rescind her decrees, and return to the accustomed principles of maritime waifare ; and at a subsequent period, as a proof of his Majesty's sincere desire to acconunodate. as tar as possible, his dpfensive measures to the convenience of neutral powers, the operation of the Orders in Council was, by an order issued in April, 1809, limited to a blockade of France, and of the countries subjected to her immediate dominion." v. His Majesty had an undoubted Right to protest as m ch as he pleased Against the French Decrees, as the Frencli had to protest against his l)i>crees;'but he had no right, nor certainly any occasion, to call on the United States to assert their own rights; — they have never been invaded by either Belligerent, without meeting with prompt resistance, save in the Case ot the English Blockade of May 1806\ of which we shall have occasion to ijpeak again under paragraph 17* — And here we see the reason why the course of the difl'erent Or- ders in Council and Decrees is deranged. " As France had declared that she would confiscate every Vessel that should touch in Great Britain, or he visitrd by Ilritish ships of xvart his Majesty was com- pelled at length to declare on the llth of November 1807, that no Neutral Vessel should proceed to France." — Now mark, gentle reader, that this threat of conHscali^^ in conseq-uence of what the French call a visit by British ships, tms persevering violence of the enemy, in which the neutral nations of Lilliput, Brobdingnag, and Laputa acquiesced, (for these were the only neutral nations except the United States, whose acquiescence we mean to dispute) came forth for the first time in the Milan decree hearing date the IJth of December of that year. — No doubt it did operate in the production of the pre- vious order of the 1 Ithof November, which the French Tiger pretends to have caused it ; but this was by a sort of anticipation, which frequently occurs in the disputes between great Belligerents,' which it is diffi- cult for simple and peace-seeking neutrals to understand, and with which if the Mathematicians in Laputa aforesaid choose to amuse themselves, tliu United States, at least, have no concern. But as to any acquiescence in it when it did appear, which was quite as soon as the United States knew any thing about it, we assert, and challenge contradiction to the assertion, that to this and all the encroachments of France, the most prompt and spirited resistance was made. Our correspondence with France on this subject is before the world. — The instructions of Mr. JNladison, aufl the letters of General Arm- strong, cannot be inspected without convincing every impartial in- quirer of this fact. — Is not Bonaparte charged by General Armstrong, iotidem verbis, with a breach of his own treaty and of the law of nations, and told, that, " to appeal to them therefore, would be lite- rally appealing to the dead i " and does not the publication of such a letter to the world, show, that there can be no connivance or good understanding between the two Governments? Please to show us something as spirited as this, in the letters of any other Minister at the Court of the Tuilleries, or any thing so galling in the corre- spondence of the American Minister, at the Court of St. James's. * Cadore (14th February 1810) excused his Government to General Armstrong fur the issue ot the Decree of Berlin, dated the 2Ut November 1806, as well as that of Milan, dated, the 17th of December 1807, as " the necessary consequence of the Biitisii Orders in Council, aud above ail, of those of November 1807." Fajooas logiciaus 1 par nobile fratrum beUigersntiumf il P»r. tS.— " Systems of violence, oppression, and tyranny, can never b« inppressed, or even checked, if the puvrrr agaiust which sucli injustice is exercised, he debarred from the riglit of full and udcatmte retaliation ; or, if the measnr^ of the retaliating power are to be consi«icred as matters of just offence to neutral nations, wliilst the measures of original aggression and violence are to be tolerated with inditfercnce, submission, or cO:>iplacency." Retaliate as much Jis you please upon your enemy. — Cut each other's throats, if you will; wc can but ngrct the mutual dtpra- vity which creates so much distress to our fellow men of other nations. But we have had no concern in your wars, otherwise we should not have been neutrals. — Wc have even no c«'placency.'' 'y.— Cut each lutual (i^pra. J'<''i of other otherwise we 'cern in them fh at a time ; ^iil be turned ' «s yours, as to a disparity against them t'xcir d. Way iao6, » a question >fi which we upon. J remonstrate y knew that ich had occa. •to resist the nrst instance re of resent- nioasures of >ich however Non-Impor. elied against ire history ' equipoise » of favors le varying will be to S'tonishing' poll them ^'» found • lusion oi •or com- tr hosiiJe >ined her •nd. ' in theiv Vide note on paragraph 12, aiid we will not dispute what is here asserted. 16th Par. — " Application wa» made to both Belligerents for a revocatioa of their respective edicts ; but the terms in which they were made, were widely different." Mere is an assertion, not only without proof, but directly in / the face of -troth most palpable. Nothing more is requisite to A satisfy any impartial inquirer of .this, from the most careless to the most inquisitive, than a simple inspection of the terms proposed equally to each. — They are in fact a circular letter requiring of each Belligerent the simple removal of those existing edicts, which violated the Neutral rights of the United States, or such moditication of them that they should no longer violate those rights ; and promising to each the precise consequences of such revocation that were promised to the other. 17th Par. — ** Of France was required a relocation only of the Berlin and Blilan Decrees, although many otiier edicts, grossly violating the neutral commerce of the United States, had been promulgated by that power. No security was demanded, that the Berlin and Milan Decrees, even if revoked, should not under some other form be re-established ; and a direct engage- ment was offered, that npon such revocation, the American Government would take part in the war against Great Britain, if Great Britain did not immediately rescind her Orders ; whereas no corresponding engagement was offered to Great Britain, of whom it was required, not only tliat the Orden in Council should be repealed, but that no others of a similar nature should be issued, and that the blockade of May, 1806, should be also aban« doned. This blockade, established and enforced according to accustomed practice, had not been objected to by the United States at the time it was issued. Its provisions were, on the contrary, represented by the American Minister resident in London at the time, to have been so framed, as to idford, in bis judgment, a proof of the friendly disposition of the British Ca< binet towards the United States." What has England to do with what violates the Neutral'-Com- merce of the United States, unless it be their own proper commerce with England? If any such violation exist, America is fully com- petent to adjust the matter herself. She never found fault with 'the immense tax that England has always gathered upon her chief staple, Tobacco, nor with her shutting out the manufactures of her Enemies or even of her Friends, from her ports. And it is not more impossible, than unreasonable, that America should foice the French to wear English coats and waistcoats. But we cannot htlp remarking here, that in the resolution to maintain the most rij^ui impartiality in respect to the restoration of intercourse with the Belligerent who •hould lirst revoke what each called his retaliatory edicts upon the other, and in confining the proffer to this object, we did not even stipulate the restoration of our impressed seamen, whwe fate no V' Drtal man can behold without shuddering w:th horror; yet if France should upbraid us with this forbearance} we would amwer her ^" / . 5 il ii .{ •n a formtr occasion, •' That the United States have a right to elect their own policy with regard to England, as they have with regard to France; and that it is only while they continue to exercise this 'right, without suffering any degree of restraint from either power, that they can maintain the independent relation in which they stand to both." It may be added indeed, that we could not anticipate the new injuries of France, but we knew those that England had already inflicted ; yet we did not mix them with this new question of mutual recrimination and pretended retaliation of each Bellige- rent on the other, and if " no security was asked, that the Berlin and Milan decrees even if revoked should not be re-established under some other form," neither was any such sccur*y d( manded of Eng- land in the revocation of her obnoxious Orders in Council.-^It is utterly impossible to discover any symptom of difference between the proposals made to the differentr Belligerents. " And a direct engagement was offered that upon such revoca- tion the American Government would take part in the wur against Great Britain, if Great Britain did not rescind her Orders, whereas, no corresponght to e/oci - y/ith regard <^^ercise this ither power, h they stand 'f anticipate •"gland had Pw question ch Beihge- the Beriii, shed under ^*d of Ena- " iciJ.^/t Ts '^" between -h revoca- ^^ against , whereas, ^:"— Now linistry to belligerent 'w indeed ' >us act of power of ^'xt place "<•''» was >i' Great • United shut to whereas oi the favored foliow- eca/ of either States OUglit > pro. h has sdiice itates 1st be with oke, iil«. Joei Orders in any other light than that of war, without even the pretext now aaaunied by her." not mean to", force the United States." a contest with To Gen. Armstrong, 22d July, 1808. " If France does not wish to throw the United States into the WAR against her, for which it is iinpo.tsibie to find a national or plausible induce- ment, she ougiit not to hesitate a moment iu revoking, at least, so much of her decrees as violate the rights of the sea, and furnish to her adversary the pretext for his retaliat- ing measures." Your Ministers must have short memories if they have forgotten the documents from which those extracts arc made, which were printed by order of the British Parliament ; and little feeling if they forget the use made of them by a statesman of the first celebrity in the opposition, when the idea now reiterated, was attempted to be im- posed upon the public. — Strictly speaking, indeed, the menage to take part in the war against her enemy, was made to Great Britain only. Such is the fair construction of the wc rds the War against France; whereas in the contrary event, no conjunction with France is intimated, neither has any such taken place ; but on the con- trary, to the last document that was before the British Government, when this declaration was issued, to wit, the President's Message of the 4th of November, such conjunction was still deprecated.— God forbid that we should take sides with either of you ; but if the events of war should require a combination; you have only to do us justice, and there can be no doubt on which side wc should prefer it. In this important Paragraph, too, we find the uncandid advan- tage that has been so often taken of the liberal construction, that the pleasing anticipation of an adjustment of all the difForcnces between the two nations, had induced Mr. Monroe to affix to the notiCcation Blockade of May 1806. — When it is asserted that " he represented it to have been so framed as to aiford in his judgment a proof of the friendly disposition of the British Cabinet towards the United States ;'' it should have been added, for it appeared in the same letter, that he made up that judgment hastily : "I have been too short a time in possession of this paper to trace it in all itsjponse- quences." And the public should also have been informed of the still higher evidence that he had misconceived its purport, in the non-admission of his inference by Mr. Fox printed in the same cor- respondence. ** He did not seem willing to ^ive his sanction to the inference I had drawn:'' but it is less the Blockade that Mr. Fox promulgated, and less still the acts of the Government under it, during the discussion of a treaty which was daily expected to put ■M- •#. 10 'I n $ I I !i an end to all the disputes bitwcrii t' two countiips, than the dis- torted construction given to it by his successors in office, and thp pretensions that they have derived from it, that have disgusted and dissatisfied us : — a construction which was denied by every mt-mbcr of ;he administration that issued the decree ; and accordingly we find Mr. Monroe saying to Mr. Foster (Oct. 1st, 1811.) " that as now eT/joMwrftf/i it is inconsistent with the sense of his Government when the order was issued," Par. 18. — '•* Great Britain wai thus called upon to abandon one of liermost important maritime rights, by acknowledging the Order of Blockade in qnes- tion to be one of the edicts which violated the commerce of the United States, although it had never been so ronsidrred in the previous negociations ; and although the President of the United States had recently consented to abrogate the Non-Intercourse Act on tlie sole condition of the Orders in Council being revoked; thereby distinctly admitting these orders to be the only edicts which fell within the contemplation of the law under wiiich he acted." The Order of Blockade in question was supposed at this time to be merged in the Orders in Council, and it is in the face of ail fair infer- ence, therefore, that it is here asserted that it had never before been considered as violating the commerce of the United States. It was not suffered in the Fox' administration to operate any actual injury to the United States. And it is notoriously known that a modifica- tion of this, as well as the Order of the 7th of January, 1807, so Jis to satisfy the demands of the United States, was in a course of amicable and satisfactory discussion at the time that that administration went out of ollicc, which alone put an end to it. Par. 19. — " A proposition so hostile to Great Britain could not but be pro- portionally encouraving to the pretensions of the enemy ; as by thus alleging that the blockade of May, 1806, was illegal, the American Government vir- tually justified, so far as depended on them, the Trench Decrees." We care not a pin whether your enemy were pleased or displeased with our measures, as long as our only motive was our own redress. — God knows that we have no special desire to please either of you, until wc see better occasion in your conduct towards us. Par. 20 and 21. — " Afttr this proposition had been made, the French Minis- ter tijr Foreign Affairs, if not in concert with that Government, at least in con- formity with its views, in a dispatch, dated the 5th of August, 1810, and adrdijl(rly ^^. *' that as Government of her most »dc in qiies- ited States, ttions; and to abrogate "ncil being icts which line to be 'air infer- fore been it Mas il injury iiodifica- so jis to niicabic on Went be pro- allpflfinjnr lent vir- pleased ress. • — fyou, Minis- in con- 0, and Berlin 2 from ke his at the ;reby, Icntly »is to be once ation and This document of the 5ih of /i'ugust revoked the Berlin and Milan Decrees Irom the 1st of the following November. Its perspective operation gave to Kngland thet^pporiunity of adopting similar mea- sures, or to use her own words, proceeding pari pas&it with her enemy, so as to have the intercourse restored to her at the same time as to France. — 'Ihe contingency of its looking forward .for three months was so far advantageous to England, as it gave her all that time to con- sider of the proposition fur adopting the like measure. And the Pre- sident, by a liberal construction of the law, extended the continuance of the intercourse from the ttlict of the Trench engagement ; and ad- mitted not only the goods that arrived, but all those that were shipped in England within three months after such effect. The conditions were precisely those, that made it obligatory on the President to restore the intei course on the terms on which it was restored: that similar conditions on your part would have produced similar effects against your enemy, we are not left to conjecture. The adjustment actually made with Mr. lirskine (of which we shall have occasion to ip.ke further notice) has placed that question beyond all doubt. Par. 2?, 23, 24, 25. — " The American Government, assuming the repeal of the French Decrees to be absolute and cffectuul, most unjustly required Great Britain, in confonnit,v to her declarations, to revoke her Orders in Comicil. The Britii^h Government denied that the repeal, which was an- nounced in the letter of the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, was such as ought to satisfy Great Britain ; and in order to ascertainjthe true character of the measure adopted by France, the Government of the United Stales was called upon to produce the instrument by which the alleged repeal of the French Decrees had been effected. If these decrees were really revoked, •nrh an instrument must exist, and no satisfactory reason could be given for withholding it. At length, on May 21, 1812, and not before, the American Minister in London did produce a copy, or at least what purported to be a copy cf such an instrument. It professed to bear date the s;8th of April, lUll, long subsequent to the dispatch of the French Minister of Foreign Affairs of the 6th of August, 1810, or even the day named therein, viz. the 1st of Novenriher following, when the operation of the French Decrees was to cease. This in- strument expressly declared that these French Decrees were repealed in con- sequence of the American Legislature having, by their Act of the ist of March, l8tl, provided, that British ships aud merchandise should be excluded from tiic ports and harbours of the United States. By this instrument, the only document produced by America as a repeal of the French Decrees, it appears, beyond a possibility of doubt or cavil, that the a'.l*'«'ed repeal of the French Decrees was conditional, as Great Britain had asserted, and not absolute or tinal, as had been maiutained by America ; that they were not repealed at the time they were stated to be repealed by the American Governm'ent ; that they Mere not repealed in conformity with a proposition, simultaneously made to bo^h Belligerents, but that iq consciiuence of a previous act o:i the part of the American Government, they were repealed in favor of one Belligerent to the prejudice of the other; that the American Government having adopted mea- sure's restrictive upon the comnieiee of both Belligerents, in c«nsequence of edicts issued by both, rescinded these measures, as they affected that power which was tiie aggressor, whilst they put them in full operation against the party aggrieved, although the edicts of both powers continued in force ; and, laxtly, that the}' excluded the »hips of war belonging to one Belligerent, whibt 12 they ndmitted into their portA and harboan the ships of inir belonging to the other, in violation of one of the plainest and most essential duties of a Neutral Nation." I 'U w Ij !'! Hi' The United States did produce the instrument which satisfied them ; — the letter of the Minister of Foreign Affairs to their own ac- credited I^Iinibter ;— the usual instrument in such cases. And it was on this docuiTunt, and tiic subsequent evidence of its operation as respected the United States, that they required u similar abrogation, and no other on your part. The miserable juggle that you thought littoadopl, when the cries (if your manufacturers, and the arguments that you could no lunger resist obliged you to retreat, would have been spurned at by a more dignified Administration ; and the only excuse for our iNIinisler's share in it is, that it was suited to the capa- cities of those he had t(5 deal with. — Our President gives no credit to it, as you sec in his comment upon it. — In all your other measures you have fallen into the snares of your enemy, either by imitating or opposing him, as his policy required ; and in this, as it was impossible to devise a more wretched State trick, you have adopted his own. It tells but little, however, in favor of the integrity of your Govern- ment, that this instrument, which must be either genuine or not genuine, should be held good by you as far as respects the revocation of your Decrees, and not good to prevent the confiscation of our pro- perty. On this subject, however, and the preceding condition of this jugglfng instrument, we shall have something farther to say in what follows. But we must repeat here, that it was not, as you assert, the only document produced by America, as a repeal of the French Decrees. The letter of the Due de Cadore, of the 5th of August, 1810, asserting that the French edicts were repealed, was also produced. — This is the ordinary mode of revocation ; it is your own mode; and the plan of a perspective operation had also been anticipated in your instructions to Mr. Erskine. Neither was there, properly speaking, any contingency to prevent their operation.— The opening left for England to come into the same measure, \/as provided for in the law of the United States. — The French no doubt agreed to it with reluctance; but the alternative was a precedent condition of the agreement, to wit, that the Non-Importation law should be put in force against her if she did not avail herself of it. — No new condition was required ; r.nd it is arrant sophistry to pretend that the French revocaticn was the consequence of any new measure adopted by the American Government; although it is pompously asserted to have been so, '* beyond all doubt or cavil." And though the contrary is here so positively asserted, nothing is more clear thnn that the revocation was made in strict " conformity with a pvopobition simultaneously made to both IJelligerents.'* — What was t.iat proposition? — lach Belligerent accused the other of being the aggressor, or invader of the law of nations ; each pretended to re- taliate against the olher; and each promised to recede from the in- 13 . longing to the es of a Neutral ich satisfied heir own ac- ■Ancl it was operation as abrogation, r'ou tliought - arguments w'ould have id the only o the capa- »o credit to r measures imitating or impossible own. r Govern- ne or not revocation four pro- idition of to say in , as you al of the le 5th of ilcd, was is your ilso been as there, n.—The iravidcd greed to ition of e put in mdition I'Vench by the o have • ling is brniity -What , being to rt- he in- asion as soon as the other should do it. America proposed to each, that if she would recede from her invasion, and the other should not follow her within three months, she would restore the intercourse to the one so receding, and s' utout the other. France says, 1 a:^rec to your conditions: 1 revoke my decrees irop^ the 1st of Xoveuiber upon the precise terms that you propose. She propounds no ni-w couditions, but repeats those propounded by America equally to bi>th Belligerents ; and even refers to the Act ot Congress whicli providis far th(ni without even an injunction, but with merely Vibicn cntcndu, it being well understood that one of the alternatives shall follow. — As though she had said, " If England follows me pari passu, as she has promised, well ; if not, you are engaged to oppose her unjust preten- sions — how? — not vi ct armis, — not ptigiiin et calcHntSy — i\oi ungvihus et rostra ; (which is uncommonly modest on her part, considering that we had offered her war against you, without ortering you war against her;) but by putting in force that very Act which you were equally engaged to put in force against me in the contrary case." The word conformity is unhappily chosen hen*. It reminds one ot the verv words of the French revocation ; and of those words which you have on many occasions, and among others in the paper under consideration, most unrighteously withheld, " Or that the United States, in conformitij with the Act which you havejvst communicated, shall cause their rights to be respected by the English." — Why were the words, here italicised, left out in this paper? (Paragraph 20.) why have they been suppresse the Snipe? they would have furnished a solution of his parenthesis, and changed all the doubts, that follow the construction of the words as he has given them, into the precision that he affects to be seeking. — *' It being well under- stood (it is not said by whom or on what ground) that the English shall revoke their Orders in Council, and renounce their new princi- ples of Blockade, or that the United States will cause their rights to be respected by the English." After the quotation, he continues — " how is this clause to be construed ?" (Edwards, p. 10.) — why truly it is of little consequence how this clause is to be construed ; but mark the real words, " Or that the United States, in conformity with the Act which you have just communicated^ will cause their rights to be respected by the English." — There is no difficulty in construing these words, '' it being well understood" by both parties and by all the world, that one of the alternatives is to follow, because the Act herein spe- cially referred to has so providjd. The Act of the 2d of March, 181 1, too, (in other respects a mere ffcital of the previous Act, and of the fulfilment of the conditions of ii in respect to France,) is only new as it puts an end to all cavil, as to the question of closing the doors of reconciliation withTingland after the three months had expired ; and authorises the President still to admit her to a perfect freedom of intercourse on a similar i ! ! t t f i4 J.f^rngationofhcrhosfileedicf., t„ w , .. "f the United s',„e, 'i;,? '^"It^ ■^'">o .„ v ola°e ,W m'"'^'"'' <■«"" i' « notorious /for ,|' ^ ' ""'''"«' "<>' "ill, ,„„V,r ^'■''"•''' «i«li» Inst hour j-iha, Tn ' /*; ''^ ""' Pi^«'line of ,h T'''^ ">« ">e -cr^hazarJZ tak^Tn'.t''',"'™^''™ «"» ".^^ "^ '"-.mhs were "''y/ros;;L?o"n^:t.i:f;/;;''^''---"yd-rw:d"'''^'-f^ to the Con^Hrvl*- l^ * discovered that fJu. P V ^"'''' contended • -n-mrsapprat rote'' ""= '''»'°'''°t r^'C:'' '"^"y -n" -rsa plicatr ofT^' ""= '''»'°'"°-" "^ ^^Z words in renoa.,.,'"' ™ "'«'"' "'""mo „ a"of i ''"' "''J''" »"« l« "Pon it, as the " '"I J'x'smrnts, wo 'arc constr-ZT"*""'' ^'«'<-- "'0 executive .L?. ''r«™y "'■ "'"' incostuou? h^r'' '" P'^^-'ce boast of the pret! f ■'''""■■y' «Wcl, i, hi t','"r™"r '''''>'«■'. less objecti,mabTe ? T«" """vorce; and mJiTI" P"* ^'^ th" indust-y prevent him f^""P"'^^^"Pon; his n , '^'^T'''' ^n this '. "1^ only imputaiion un- 15 4 (ler which he can be prevailed upon to consider us his enemy ; and therefore most artfully insinuated in eqaul contradiction of the evi- dence of our most essential interests, as of every document that hat ever appeared, or ever can appear upon the subject ; and the manu- facturers at It-ast, in reverting to their testimony on the relief that Mr. Erskinc's treaty gave them, will hardly forget that we did ac- tually maintain against France on that occasion the exclusion from intercourse which we opened to you. Par. 36th. — "Altlioiigh the instrument thus produced was by no means that general and iin(|ualincd revocation of tiie Berlin and Milan Decrees which Great Britain had continually demanded, and had a full right to claim ; and although this iustrument, under all the circumstances of its appearance at that moment, for the first time, was open to the strongest Huspicions of its authenticity; yet as the Minister of the United States produced it, as pur- porting to be a copy of the instrument of revocation, the Government of Great Britain, desirous of reverting, if possible, to the ancient and accus- tomed principles of maritime war, determined upon revoking conditionally the Orders in Council. Accordingly in the month of June last, liis Royal Highness the Prince Regent was pleased to declare in Council, in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, that the Orders in Council should be re- voked, as far as respected the ships and property of tlie United States, from the 1st of August following. This revocation was to continue in force, pro« vided the Government of the United States should, within a time to be limit- ed, repeal their Restrictive Laws against British commerce. His Majesty's Minister in America was expressly ordered to declare to the Government of the United States, ' that this measure had been adopted by the Prince Regent, in the earnest wish and hope, either that the Government of France, by further relaxations of its system, might render perseverance on the part of Great Britain in retaliator}' measures unnecessary, orif this hope should prove delusive, that his Majesty's Government might be enabled, in the absence of all irritating and restrictive regulations on either side, to enter with the Government of tlie United States into amicable explanations, for the purpose of ascertaining whether, if the necessity of retaliatory measures should un- fortunately continue to operate, the particular measures to be acted upon by Great Britain could be rendered more acceptable to the American Govera- meut, than those hitherto pursued.'" It will be seen by what is said above, that the instrument here referred to, even if genuine and duly promulgatefl, which none but a fool will suppose, and which even Lord Castlereagh discovered and pronounced to be the veriest juggle that ever was produced, though he afterwards preferred retreating by it to acknowledging the true fact, that he was beaten from the ground that he had almost sworn to maintain ; — it will be seen, we say, that the instrument here referred to, could in no shape be considered any thing more than a corroboration of the* French Decrees having been repealed from the 1st of November preceding, to which date as the period of the revocation, it literally refers. It could if genuine only be consi- dered as certifying that the preceding condition of the revocation had been carried into effect by the United States. It added not a tittle to the matter of fact, neither does it even pretend to be the act of revocation ; but merely a certificate of facts predicated upon it. m i: ; i^!: 16 Sir William Scott is content with the revocation of the 5lh of August 1810, to a certain point — " I nin authorized to ubstan- lially repeateed in demanding the revocation of its successors, but that we imagined rightly. How then can it be a^^scrlcd (Harngraph 18.) that this order was never considered by us us one of the edicts which violated the commerce of the United State's. The truth is, and it will so clearly appear by a recurrence to the correspondence, that the view of the case now formally asserted was that under which the United States treat- ed it. — It was only relinquished by Mr. Pinkney, when it was found convenient by your Government to adopt another construction. — It was only on finding that Marquis Welleshjy had " not adopted," but " had resisted" the idea of incorporation here re-asserted, that he treated of it on se^^arate ground. (Pinkney to Wellesley 21st Sept. 1810.) Par. 29.—" The American Government, before they received intimation of the course adopted by the British Government, had, in fact, proceeded to the extreme measure of declaring war, aud issuing " Letters of Marque," notwithstanding they were previously in possession of, the report of the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, of the 13th of March, 1812, promulga- ting anew the Berlin and Milan Decrees^ as fundamental laws of the French Empire, under the false and extravagant pretext, that the monstrous princi« pies .therein contained were to be found in the Treaty of Utrecht, and were therefore binding upon all States. From the penalties of this code no nation was to be exempt, which did not accept it, not only as the rule of its own conduct, but as a law, the observance of wliich it wus also required to enforce upon Great Britain." It is notorious on the face of the French document here referred to, that it did not contemplate America at all. — Not only is there nu mention made of America in it; but Europe, the continental system, and the ports of the continent, are, as we before observed, the continual burden of the song.-— France and the countries in alliance with, or in subjugation to her, as the paper before us ex- presses it, (and to which, whether incorporated or conquered, we could have no access without the consent of the ruling powers,) were alone parties to this instrument, which announces the continu- ance of the Berlin and Milan Decrees against those powers only who allow their flags to be denationalized. It is not true then that no nation was to be exempt from the penalties of this code ; for fi9m this character of Denationalisation the flag of the United States c 18 wiis already exempted by the operaliun of the law against yon, v/hich hud bi^n ofl'orcd to you against your enemy. And it was still in your pov oi, by revoking your hostile edicts, as they aflfected UH, and us only if you pKuse, to liberate your commerce, and your marine, from every restraint that was imposed upon it. — And had it been otherwise; — had the French document had any reference to us, still it was only the declaration of France;— our consent was neces- sary to make us party to it ; and to this we were not only nut invited, but it was before your eyes in documents and correspondcr ce to which you were party with us, that we distinctly disavowed the French doctrines promulgated in it, and subscribed to the English in every point of the law of nations, which it embraces. — Your effort, in your declaration of the 21st of April, to lead the world, and none more than your own people, into the erroneous belief of French in- fluence on our councils, by blending us with France, as the support- ers of those doctrines, with this evidenc(| before ^our eye;^, has already been treated by our President as an insult, and chastisi d ns it deserves. Par. 30. — " In a Manifesto, accompanying their declaration of ho8tiliti<-8, in addition to the fomver cotAplaint* against the Orders in Council, a loiig list of grievances vras brought forward ; some trivial in themselves, others which had been mutually adjusted, but none of them such as were ever before alleged by the American Government to be grounds for war." In this Paragraph there is the highest evidence of the anxiety of the United States to maintain to the last extremity the relations of Peace ; of their forbearance under multiplied injuries; — of their efforts to avert the storm which must be prejudicial to the mutual interests of two countries, whose interest must ever be mutual in the eyes of every enlightened statesman. — We know not whether we can take credit for what is here said, that none of our grievances were ever before alleged by our government to be grounds for War. — Certainly, we have given some broad hints that they were so ; though to use the words of Mr. Madison, " it is no less true that wc are warmly dis- posed to cherish all the friendly relations subsisting with Great Britain.' if in this temper, and with this view, we have forborne to allege those grievances as grounds for war, can any one look at them for a moment without seeing that they arc such, and that such forbearance is tht; best evidence of patience and long suffering on our part ? Can any one look at them without seeing that while the cup of bitter- ness was swelling to the brim, we were drinking the cup of concilia- lion to the dregs.— The catalogue is too copious, and would indeed be too humiliating to be recapitulated without some feelings of indignation, that our government had borne, them so long, * See this quotation more at large in Letters from a Cosmopolite to a Cler- gymaTiy page 55, or the Monthly Revitw for Angnst lust. ■lii.ii 19 were ever were it not for the hostile feelings ox( itod by the niisconduit of ynur enemy, and our aversion from indulging, ut yuur expense as will a» our own, the rapacity of your cruis«Ts ;— We will seictt but one <»f them : look at the Aniericun seaman impressed on board u British man of war ; chained to the gun of his op|)ressor to deal out death to a brother of mankimi, perhaps his own brother, und in every case no enemy of his : — sec him brought to the gangway for disobedience to an officer who has no right to command him, and even for an rfTort to advise the ofTiccrs of his own Government of his situation ; — see him wounded in such a cause, and dying by the side of a brave Engl'sh messmate ; and hear their mutual groans ; — the one soothed by th reflection that can sweeten death — " I die for my country ;" — tht*'j*her, tuning his eyes to the forger of his chains — " 1 am mur- dered and unrevengcd." — And is it to be imputed to us as a fiiult that v«,e are at length at war for such, among other causes ; because in the )iopeof redress we have vorn out years in seeking the abolition of this practice by just and prudent arrangements between the two govern- ments.— You would make war with all the world for treating a single sailor of yours, as you have treated many thousands of ours. - Nay, you would not spare a precious subject of your own that should' commit the comparatively venial crime of putting one of them on shore on a desert Island, where at worst he could only starve ; and this multiplied and continual aggression on your part, is not to be considered a ground for War, because we have borne it so long without alleging it as such. You ought to know, for it is no secret in your Navy, th^-t many of your officers make no scruple to impress an American seaman wherever they can find him; and even boastof it.-— Perhaps too if you scrutinize you will find that your own orders to restore such have not always been obeyed. — We do not acquit you of any share in this iniquity;— the shoals of our seamen sent ashore in tlie Fox admi- nistration, and only then, furnished pretty strong presumptive evi- dence of conn|%ance in their successors as well as in those that pre- ceded them ; but we believe you are sometimes deceive*!, and clear it is, that the best intentions of an administration must fail while officers not immediately under their eye, and wanting men, are licensed judges in their own cause. — We would do every thing in the world, — would even help to procure for you every man to whom you are entitled, according to your own principles and acknow- ledged practice; but as long as you will not suffer the officer of any nation under the sun to visit your ships, and take out whomso- ever he may please to call subjects of his own; you will look in vain for any acquiescence on our part in a measure fraught with such distressing injury to our citizens. 31st Par.—" As if to throw additional obstacles in the way of peace, the American Congress at the same time passed a law, prohibiting all inter- course with Great Britain, of such a tenour, as deprived the Executive Go- renunent, according to the President's own construction of that Act, of ' I * I 1 i I )*■ :?')• .$(;(': £0 all povibT of restoring the relations of friendly intercourse between th^ two states, so far, at least, as concerned their commercial intercourse, until Congress should re-assenible.' The law here referred to put an end to those powers for restoring the intercourse which thi* President had in vain exerted for ycars» and which were incompatible with a state of war. No encourage- ment could bj entertained in America at that time to hope for a revocation of the Orders in Council. It was five days after the declaration of war in America that those orders were revoked in England, and not a symptom of relaxation, but the strongest pledge* to the contrary were exhibited till within a week of that revocation in England, and till the last hour of the declaration of War and even after that declaration, by your Minister here. — The ve y docuracntf from which you draw this construction ot the President, recomin«ndt the c ^opion of an equitable mode of preventing any inconvenience to individuals from your unexpected retrea^ 32d Par. — " The President of the United States has, it is true, since pro- {.MNt'd to Great Hritaiu an Armistice ; not, liowever, on the adniiNsion, that the canse of war liitlieito relied on wat> removed ; but on condition, that Great Britain^ as a preliminary step, should do away a cause of war, now brought forward as such for the first time : namely, that she should aban> don the exercise of her undoubted righ' of search, to lake from American merchant vessels British seamen, the natural born subjects of his Majesty; and this concession was required upon a mere assurance that laws would be euacted by the Legislature of the United States, to prevent such seamen from entering into their service. But independent of the obiection to an exclusive reliance on a foreign state, for the conservation 'tf so vital an interest, no explanation was, or could be atibrded by the a^ent who was charged with this overture, either as to the mai » principles upon which such laws were to be founded, or as to the provisions which it was proposed they should contain." In reply to paragraph .30, wc ha'-e shown some of the precious effects of tlie practice which it is here attempted to defend. It re- / mains only to add the propositions that were raadc-^is many years v'V] ago, wlien Mr. Monroe was our Minister in Englaiul, and which have never yet been withdrawn. — We then offered to enl:r into en- gagements to allow of no protection to British seamen ; but on the contrary, to deliver them up whenever they sought refuge among us. — To aid in searching for, seizing, and restoring ihem ; and to enact laws for this purpose ; to keep them in our prisons when thereunto required, qnd to prohibit our citizens, under adequate penalties, from carrying them off or employing them. All this was proffered by our Government for an exemption from that seizure upon the high Seas of all persons not liable thereto by the laws of Nations, which could not in the case supposed attach on any British sailor. For our naturuliz:ed citizens, comprising few, if any of this class of men, and none that have not become so by three years* longer residence jimong us than is required for the same privilege with you, we tsk only the protection which you extend to your own. "'.jrvfonv^^t^^-* between tiicj, two Qtercourae, until rs for restoriiig rrt'd for years. No cncourag*'- to hope for a fiays after the eie revoked in ■ongest pledges t revocation in ^Var and even y document, recomimrndi inconvenience rue, since pro- dniiNsion, that condition, that e of war, now ' sliould 3kbw Tom American f his Majesty ; ' laws would be sucJi seamen bjection to an »f 80 vital an t,'ent who was upon which was proposed the precious end. It re- y J many years ilf\ and which ^ ' ^<'r into en- but on the among us. id to enact thereunto penalties, rofFcred by ' th« high ns, which lor. For ss of men, residence h we ask 31 Who the agent charged with the reiteration of the overttire was, or how instructed, we pretend not to know ; but we cannot doubt that he was authorized to pledge all the power of the executive Go- vernment to procure the enactment of adequate penalties to prevent t, breach of the contract ; and moreover we ace convi need that, under an amicable arrangement to this effect, the American Merchant and staman seeing in it his own security and that of his brethren, would exert a vigilance to see it carried into execution, that would leave no escape for those deserters of their country's call that might pos- sibly escape tho hands of the officers charged with it. We have not a doubt that if the subjects, to which your own laws and practice intitle you, were all you are in quest of; you would recover more of them by this process than by any other that could be adopted. 33d Par. — " This jprnpositiou having been objected to, a second proposal was made, again offering an annis tice, provided the British Government would secretly stipulate to renounce the exercise of this right in a treaty of peace. An immediate and formal abandonment of its exercise, as preiimi* nary to a cessation of hostiMties, was not demanded ; but his Royal Highnesa the Prince Regent was reqi .red, in the name and on the behalf of His Ma* jesty, secretly to abandon what tlie former overture had proposed to hin publicly to concede." 34th Par. — " This most offensive proposition was also rejected, bein|; arcompanied, as the former had been, by other demands of the most ex- eeptionable nature, and especially of indemnity for all American vessels de- tained and condemned under the Orders in Council, or under what were termed ilie{;al blockades — a compliance with which demands, ei^clusive of all other objections, would have amounted to an absolute surrender of the rights on which those Orders and blockades were founded." We cannot comment on these propositions without having them fairly before us. — If an armistice were proposed during the temper- ate discussion of rights which we have never for a moment aban> doned ; and rejected because we would not tamely surrender a pro- perty, in innocent merchandize, which we have never censed t9 demand; — which no other nation under heaven conceives you have any right to ; and to the restoration of which we are clearly intitied« by your own construction of the law of Nations^ very recently pro- mulgated ; there can be no difficulty in appeahng to the world, ard to p'^sterity, as to which of us is chargeable with the calamities of war. — It is a subject of easy demonstration, and has been clearly demonstrated, that the Orders under which this property has been 5eizcd, will not boar the test of 'he laws of Blockade. -Nay it hat been ({cnionstrated thatj^ur own administration has denounced them as illegal ; * and whatever the law locf; ed in England may say, the true law, diffusa in omnes, constanSf sempiterna, which has no lo- ' See on this subject letters from a Cosmopolite to a Clergyman, 2d and Sd letter. i W 22 tnisjs not even pretended. "* '**'* "« other 35th Par.—*' Had th»» A been expected r«.«^*''' .*^a'<^»ated to lead f« if^M*^''*^^^" Off at Bri! 36th Par. — " Rnf th^ j rowers. Here again wc muH refer .„ „. *<* represent ihc Ordm i' 'pP""?,'"'?'' ^O- Once for all w. » 38 th Par. ** The n •rmistice being ro„ied h f'^^'"^»« «^ this^eht ',? '"/«''* ^^^ P'ac? agree, without Mri«owllu"t ?'**'* Britain wm ip^. • ^j*» without any 39th Par -« jf Am • i^ ""iritime power " * ' honswhichmaySr. **^^«^"«d, or conjlitp.? °° ^'"'^^^ *« treat*^ 23 cquUs us.— . riimistration a' rights. — similar re- * a casting ■i^ays judge )e no other epresentine Great Bri- wight have :a"ed their restore the ited State« ;ially com- aothitig in )re peace, Qtially to ardAme. ve never Iculated ndantly uses of earance on our repeal Je com- t» were United >on, in miliary ' place ut any isly to Kid be egula- right, ', in- uinot Teat. gula- rtb plan for consideration. The British Government has never attempted to exclade this question from amongst those on which the two States might have to n«« gociate : it has, on the contrary, uniformly professed its readiness to receive and discuss any proposition on this subject coming from the American Oo- vernraent ; it has never .asserted any exclusive right, as to the impressment of British seamen from American vessels, which it was not prepared to ackuow' ledge, as appertaining equally to the Oovenunent of the United States, with respect to American seamen when found on board British merchant ships : but it cannot, by acceding to such a basis in the first instance, either assume or admit that to be practicable, which, when atttmpted on former occasions, has always been found to be attended with great dimculties ; such difficulties as the British Commissioners, in 1806, expressly declared, after an attentive consideration of the suggestions brought forward by the Commissioners on the part of America, they were unable to surmount." We shall only add to our former observations on this subject, that the regulations of a foreign state here referred to, were the regula- tions of the undoubted maritime rights of her own merchant ships ; such regulations, as you neither will, nor ever have sufi'ered to be invaded in your own case, recommended moreover by the continual abuse of the power for which you are contending against all right, and infinitely better calculated to give you all that you pretend to want. And what is this pretence of a readiness to receive and discuss any proposition that may come from tlie American Government on this subject? — discuss the propositions already made, and recapitulated above, and, which, but for a change of administration, we have little doubt woul$i have been agreed to as soon as the popular deceptions on this subject, which it required time to surmount, could have been removed. — Let us hear your objections to them at once, if you have any to make. We want none of your sailors, nor any of your sub- jects. We have no desire to diminish your means of defence against your enemy, with whom we have also a reckoning to settle if we can get you off our hands. But if you will be seven years in dis- cussing the plan, and can produce no better, do not keep our poor fellows imprisoned all the time ; nor cajole, nor humbug us, (to use a suitable phrase,) with a pretence, n«w for the first time set up, that we may exercise a right which you never before allowed to any nation on earth ; to impress our seamen, whom we never impress any where, from on board your Merchant ships where they are nevfer to be found. The only persons that the law allows the ships of a Belligerent nation to take out of neutral ships at sea, are military persons serv- ing in the war. And were it otherwise, and were the rule which you now find it convenient to proffer, the universal rule, and applied in your own cusc, what would be your language? *' Then take thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh ,: But, in tlie cutting it, if thou dost shed One drop of English blood ; thy ship and goods Are, by the laws of England, confiscate, ' Aye, and thy life is forfeit to the State." i Par. 40. — " Whilst this proposition, transmitted through the British Admi- ral, was pending in America, another comraanication on the subject of an armistice was nnofficialljr made to the British Government in this country. The agent, from whom this proposition was received, acknowledged that he did not consider that he had any aathority himself to sign an agreement on the part of his Government. It was obvious that any stipulations entered into, IB conseqnence of this overture, would have been binding on the British Government, whilst the Government of the United States would have been free to refiise or accept them, according to the circumstances of the moment : this proposition was therefore necessarily declined." We don't much wonder at your declining a proposition in this form; though it would have been but civil in you to let the public know what it was.— Perhaps it was of a nature to which you might have committed yourselves without any disadvantage from the United States rejecting or accepting it. And at all events, as Mr. Foster and Mr. Baker will tell you that we don't stand upon form, we should like to see a counter project sent hither. Par. 41. — " After this exposition of the circumstances which preceded and which have followed the declaration of war by the United States, his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, acting in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, feels himself called upon to declare the leading principles by which the conduct of Great Britain Ims been regulated in the transactions connected with these discussions. Par. 42. — " ITis Royal Highness can never acknowledge any blockade whatever to be illegal, which has been duly notified, and is supported by an adequate force, merely upon the ground of its extent, or because the ports or coasts blockaded are not at the same time invested by land. Par. 43. — " His Royal Highness can never admit that neutral trade with Great Britain can be constituted a public crime, the commission of which can expose the ships of any power whatever to be denationalized. Par. 44. — ** His Royal Highness can never admit that Great Britain can be ' debarred of its ri^t of just and necessary retaliation, through the fear rC eventually affecting the interest of a neutral. 'Par. 45. — " His Roval Highness can never admit, that in the exercise of the undoubted and hitherto undisputed right of searching neutril merchant vessels in time of war, the impressment of British seamen, when fuund therein, can be deemed any violation of a neutral flag. Neither can he admit, that the taking such seamen from on board such vessels, can be considered "by aujr neutral state as a hostile measure, or a justifiable cause ef war. Par. 46.—" There is no right more clearly established than the right which a Sovereign has to the allegiance of his subjects, more especially in time of war. Their allegiance is no optional duty, which they can decline, and resume at Eleasure. It is a call which they are bound to obey : it began with their irth, and can ^nly terminate with their existence. Par. 47.—" If a similarity of language and manners may make the exer- cise of this right more liable to partial mistakes, and occasional abuse, when practised towards vessels of the United States, the sixne circumstances make It also a right, with the exercise of which, in regard to such vessels, it is mor^ difficult to dispense. Par. 48.—" Bu : if, to the practice of the United States, to harbour British seamen, be added their assumed right to transfer the allegiance of British sub- 25 Of counccted itain can b^ jects,and that to cancel the jurisdiction of their legitiniite Sovereign, by nctn of naturalization nnd certificates of citizenship, which they pretend to be m valid out of their own territory as within it, it is obvious that to abandon this ancient right of Groat Britain, and to admit th«sc novel pretensions of U19 United States, would be to expose to danger the very foundation of our mari* time strength." Par. 49. — " Without entering minutely into the other topics, which have been brought forward by the Government of the United States, it may be pro- per to remitrk, that whatever the Declaration of thn United States may have asserted. Great Britain never did demand that they should force British manu> factures into France; and she formally dec-larrd her willingness entirely to forego or modify, in concert with the Uiiited States, the system, by which « commercial intercourse with the enemy had been allowed under the protec« tion of licenses, provided the United States would act towards her and towards France with reul impartiality." Par. 50. — " The Government of America, if the differences between States are not interminable, has as little right to notice the affair of the Chesapeake. The aggression in ihis instance on the part of 1 British officer, was acknow- ledged, his conduct was disapptoved, and a r« yiiration was regularly tendered by Mr. Foster on the part of his Majesty, and accepted by the Government of the United States." Par. 51. — " It is not less unwarranted in its allusion to the mission of Mr. Henry; a mission undertaken without the authority 01 even knowledge of his Alajesty's Government, and which Mr. Foster was authorised formally and officially to disavow." Par. 52. — " The charge of exciting the Indians to offensive measures against the United States is equally void of foundation. Before the war began, a policy the must opposite had been unifomdy pursued, and proof of this was tendered by Mr. Fo8t«r to the American Government." Par. 53. — " Such are the causes of war which have been put forward by the Government of the United States. But the real origin of the present contest will be found in that spirit which has long unhappily actuated the Councils of the United States : their marked partiality in palUating and assisting the 9 -^ressive tyanny of France ; their systematic endeavours to inflame their people against the defensive measures of Great Britain ; their ungenerous conduct towards Spain, the intimate ally of Great Britain ; and their unwor- thy desertion of the cause of other neutral nations. It is through the preva- lence of such councils, that America has been associated in policy with France, and committed in war against Great Britain." Par. 54. — ** Arid under what conduct on tlie part of France has the Go- vernment of the United States thus lent itself to the enemy? The contemp- tuous violation of the Commercial Treaty of the year 1800, between France and the United States; the treacherous seizure of all American vessels and cargoes in every harbour subject to the control of the French arms ; the tyrannical principles of the Berlin and Milan Decrees, and the confiscations under them : the subsequent condemnations under the Rambouillet Decree, antedated or concealed to render it the more effectual ; the French commer- cial regulations, which render the traffic of the United States with France almost illusory; the tuning of their merchant ships at sea, long after the alleged repeal of the French Decrees — all these acts of violence on the part of France produce from the Government of the United States, only such com- plaints as end in acquiescence and submission, or are accompanied bv sngges* tions for enabling France to give the semblance uf.a legal form to her uuur- pations, by converting mem into municipal regulations." 1- If '; .1 'J ••' 'I t ^ iii^ !•: :? I 26 Par. 55.—*' This disposition of the Oovemm»nt of the United States — this romplpte 8iil)8t>rviency to the Ruler of France — this hostile temper to* wards Grpb.t Britain — are evident in almost every pa|;e of tlie official corres^ pondence of the American with the French Government." Par. 56. — " Ajjainst this course of conduct, the real cause of the present war, the I*riric« Kcgent suleniiily protests. Whilst cont^'uding against France, in drfeiicc not only of tlic liber fies of Great Britain, hut of th«' world, his Royal Hi;.'hne:?s was iutitled to look for a fur ditferent result. From their common origin — from their coinmcn interest — from their professed principles of frt cdom and indcpondciice, the United States were the last power in which Great Britain could have expected to find a willing instriuuent, and abettor of French tyranny." Par. 57. — "Disappointed in this his just'expoctation, the Prince Regent ' ill still piirsnt- the poiic-y wliirh the Brli'^li (jDvernment has so long and in- viiriably maintuined, in repelling injustice, and in supporting the general riL fits of nations ; and, under the favor of Providence, relying on the justice of his cause, and the tried loyalty and tirnnies!> of the ]iritish nation, His Royal Highness conlidcntly looks forward to a successful issue to the contest, iu witic.i he has thus been compelled most reluctantly to engage." We have thrown all this declamation together ; not from the least desire to shrink from a ciiticul investigation ot it, paragraph by paragraph, but bicause it will be seen that much of it has no relation to us; niuch has already been answered: much isemploytd in the empty cry by which alone the English Nation can be duptd into hostility with us, that we are asi>t)ciatid with France, which we have shown to be without a shadow of evidence, and of which we challenge a single proof from that correspondence so vainly appealed to, or from any other source. — Because our doctrine ot Blockade is neither that which Trance, or England chooses to set up. to answer shift!!'.g, and i)tcasional pvirposes, but that which England has al- ways, asserted, 'I shifting aiui occasional purposes led her astray iVonv the right path ;— because our doctrine of retaliation confines it to the party comniitiingihe wrong; and considers it •' monstrous to suppe)sc, that because one ce/uiury has been guilty of an irregula- rity, every other country is ht loose from the i.aw of Nations, and is at liberty to assume as much as it thinks fit." (I Rob. 142.) \N'c do nut allow that your Officers have any excuse in the similarity of language an I Omitted in Page 3, the 9th Paragraph. Par. 9.—*' For th«'8e attempts to niin the commerce of Great Rritain, by meanj subversive of tlie clean'st v'lahti of neutral nations, France endeavour- ed in vain to rest tier justiticatiou upon tlie previous conduct of His iVlajesty's GuvcruQicnt." -i i / POSTSCRIPT. SiKCE the first impression of these sheets, which were Written and sent to Press as soon as the answer of Lord Castlereagh to Mr. Baring appeared in the Chronicle of Tuesday last ; and before they were ripe for the public eye j a debate on the subject of them has been held in Parliament, of which it may be useful to take a brief notice. Mr. Canning is reported to have said last night, that he did not impute to the Americans that they were thft friends of France. For this concession, after his manifold charge of manifest partiality, we are perhaps indebted to the previous as sertion of Mr. Foster ; but reverting soon to the enmity which h cannot conceal, he refers to the contest in which Russia has beei. since engaged, and of which America, at the time when War was resolved on, could not have had even a ^ewpective view, as in- fluencing her determination at that time ; and he talks of America 29 M leagued with the Oppreisor of the world, with the Document before his eyes in which the American Executive, (five months al- ready at War with us, and at a period when, according to all ap- pearances?' in America, success was attending, and likely to con- tinue to attend, the Arms of France against Russia,) had enjoined on the Legislature, not to entangle itself in the views of that power. It is extremely important, to a right understanding of those things, that we should remember the distance from Europe to America, and from America to Europe : the Orator, that is allowed to annihilate both space and time, can have no difficulty in establishing his point. ( view, as m- cs of America Another remark on the Debate attaches to the Speech x)f Mr. G. H. Rose ; who, in asserting the number of British sailors on board the American frigates, before the employment of foreigners was disallowed, let the house into the secret that it was the easiest thing in the world to discriminate between an English and an American sailor :—" they are easily distinguished hj their man- ners and habits, which are very different from ours." Meaning thereby from those of our sailors — so says the Anticipation. But with this fact before our eyes, and ten thousand impressed Ameri- can seamen on board our ships, can we hesitate to substitute for the practice of our officers, (wanting men, and subjecting the pro- perty of a free man in himself to their rapacity,) the mode in which the American Government has proposed to join its efforts to ours to procure us all our own, but without any of our neighbour's, goods. Another subject remains to be noticed, though last, not least. I^, Foster has Informed the house that Mr. Madison Is no Frenchman j and Mr. Munroe is no Frenchman ; and Mr. Canning, whatever he has done, or may do, ceased for a moment to impute to the Americans that they were the friends of France. I congratuL..c the world on the developement of this discovery r^not on the dis- so •OTcry itself, for it is sdrtie years old — it is to be found in the Diplo- matic Correspondence, and in the personal averments of all the Minis- ters that we have sent to America, including Mr G. H. Rose, and with the single exception, it may be, of Mr. JacksonTlvho had little opportunity of knowing any thing about it. Hear what Mr. Erskine says on the subject to this same Mr. Canning, (who is first melted into a momentary contrition by the Speech of Mr. Foster,) in a Letter of the 25th of March, ISOU. •• ;Si -I " I continue to be firmly persuaded that Mr. Madison, tvould mott willingly seize the first opportunity of recommending to the next Congress to assert tlje Neutral rights against France, should His Majesty deem it to be jUst or expedient to cause his Orders in Council to be withdrawn, as he lias frequently, in conversation, said to me, that no hesitation would be felt in this Country of en- tering upon hostilities with France, if she did not repeal her De- crees ; but he always added that it was impossible the United States could take such a step while His Majesty's Orders were in force." 5 * ll But says Mr. Canning, in his melting moments, brushing the dew from his prolific brow, " I do not say Mr. Madison is the enemy of this Country, — no man is the enemy of a country, — but the determined enemy of its institutions, ^'c. Let us hear Mr. Erskine on this point, in his letter to this same Mr. Canning, of December 4, 1808. — "He" (Mr. Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury,) " turned the conversation immediately upon the character of Mr. Madison, and said that he could not be accused of having such a bias to vards France : and remarked that M.\ Madison was known to be an admirer of the British Constitution, to be generally well disposed towards the nation, and to be intirely free from any enmity to its general prosperity. He appealed to me, whether / had not observed that he frequently spoke with approba- / -^'>' y^^-}:- A t.'^,'_^- <-^ • c/~r '^"^c. ^^ ■/ 2: ^>i<- 81 tion of its institutions, its energy, and spirit, and that he was thoroughly well versed in its history, literature, and arts." Now, to this appeal, tlie whole scope of the correspondence shows that Mr. Erskine bowed assent :-r— his " confident belief" in the " unfeigned desire " of tlie American Government for " an Ajl* justment of their difficulties, and the maintenance of amity with Great Britain," runs through tlie whole, and has been corroborated by the testimony of all who have had equal opportunity of judging —Yet strange to tell, if any thing can be strange in these times, Ministers have adopted the clamors of party, unsupported by a single overt act, or die least appearance of a concealed one, in preference not only to the evidence before all tlie World, but to that of tlieir own legitimate correspondents. We have not time to comment upon the very pertinent and manly recognition of Mr. William Smith, who reprobated all idea of reciprocity between the state of the British Seaman employed in America, froiji his own choice, (excess of liberty) and the Ameri- can Seaman on board our Men of War, (excess of slavery.) But we cannot forego the remark, that Mr. Whitbread, (who, if he does not stand alone, stands pre-eminent, in asserting the rectitude of the American Government,) is always greeted by his opponents on such occasions with a multitudinous exclamation of heaVf heart henry and thus truths, which posterity will find most clear, are brought into that temporary discredit which cannot fail to be followed by lasting regret. Februarj^ 3 9, 1813. i^i :i^i,.v;^i«lr>>^' V- ■i *i 7v>J.rM-/'i:^;nVi>''V-i>^$ f. -H '<^L£i^^ ;'«>y^ V .« ■mv <■• ■ i ' «» , T» . «.}'■•!>> < , ' f Ktl^: :iuu .iu. .1 'i-vv /■• rji l^tt?**^^/'' "ijyb 'V '■*K*< v'* <^*i'r Iv^ #3 'i^>' va.-^^'j^i^: "*.>. •.■>rv ■■■/>- ^^^ LkW - V » < 3; 'i'^".^ s.^. ^^.v w '^ii>j;.«j t'^i-<';: Vj.ifi, f.;'i;';^v&r{ .t -it kh: V^ I ii/»i..;i\ ir.'i ■jl'* i'.-vV- 5 '.^ :,;': t:^i^:*ffiii-)f]}^'\-:-U'i&t^* ,. 4 < f'O fV.:p^Ml'^Xx''^'^'K''-^ ' :v. i' ■)^.hi*: •.- . \r ■ 1 ■ lilt •X". .' ^^^^ > svr r -"-jlf.'-'v. .vri-y.i ^' t; r ■').', .liir\;, > il.i ■• rj,} ;,, <.!< : ^ y u ■ .r M! •*> i^lb/'v »i!j 4' vii I ;,,)-.. rmf ii i.iuy K^i^ijj.r-rxi K f^»>: ' Jf^.t 7\-: : ^': r n^ftVKl „m; :<- „ t ' i'Jft. i»t^^'. 1S5. ', J i -Ik It , V ■-.■> : I i -^::^> >>c J ^*' •r- lonnon: PRINTfiD BY A. J. VALVY, TOOER'S COIRT, M'' .yi- kJfT^^t. ..^i ,<* ^ / CIUNCERV LAN*. <• -^ " » .. '**!' m ■»» wf ■^* ^'^V-^^ i^i^ '»<'*•■ »<.:1J •.)■ ■• -^'rii-Nt :>^>'¥:' ' Mil- "iiuV\ ' ( J\ tt.'t,' > "■ .' ''• ■■/«*'■-' ^6 ':^i-?:'. ' '4 ^^4-^