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Les diagrammas suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 S 6 ..'.j^vi^.' American Question. PRICE Is. 6d. A LETTER, *V' FROM A CALM OBSERVER, "i' . r'"'?"' •^-■' ■.■;!'. ''P A 5;is.! .<■ '•-, '"'1 .: ,v'; .;wr hi] ^oble Xorti, ::'< ^Af^fMUi hvmy ON THE SUBJECT 'i » .•■■■-':•■; ,*;,,: : ■; ^ il^S OF THE LATE DECLARATION li':-.^-,-. .i--<',' RELATIVE TO THE :*'if ••:■■■ ORDERS IN COUNCIL. ^*'»#'v;' ■• ■■•■ ■ ..... * 1.'.' ■; ! •>»;•* J" PKINTED BY A. J. VAIPY, TOOKe's COV&T, t. ; CHANCERY LANE; HOLD BY GALE AND Cl>]lTI8, PATE&NOSTEa ROW; JAMBS RICHARDSON, OPFOSITB THB ROYAL EXCHANGE; AND ALL OTHER BOOK8ELLKRS. ,■> ^. 1812. PREFACE. I n those vlio tloiilit, and to tlioso wlio believing, still regret, thr ii«((ssity, ill foiiits of Jiistire,of tl.t ()1<1 BaiU-y-pracliir ot'examin- in;; \vitiussrs ir mn^t de |iiiintiil to olivorvc a nmidc so little di&;nificd ailniiitcd at llif liiir ut'oiie of thr jii-fiit roiiiicils nfthe nation; t'spcci- jilly uhiic ;;icli »nrtics iiulicate but too jilaiiily the chicane that ni*j bf (wpcru d »o IV! u\v. Siiir< liif Iclter lu'ie jirosented to the public was written, it ha* iip|Kar>(i Imt tdo pinirily that u discrimination is intended to be advaii<'<'il I'i'lwocii the Onicis m Conncil, iiiid tin- nrtifieation ofblork- ■dde of tlip Irili of iMay, 1!)()6 ; and in ordtr to trip the advocates for peace and I'l^r cnniniiM-cial intercourse wilii Ihe United States, the importance of ni^iiiitiiining our niaiitinie rii lits will be piostitnled in an iinrinlitPons ( oniest, in which the false pretence of a desire to invade or diminish them on the part of tltat geveinmcnt will be as nsniil nnhliii-hiiiply a.'jserted. Uut vvlii'ther this notification is to be considered as an Order in C'ouiii'il, to which it is itiiiivalent, or as mcrijed in the siib^^eiiuent Ord>.r of January, 1H07 ; as Mr. I'inkney supposed it, there isnodniibt thai its existence in the shape of a mere proelan ation blockade is incompatible with the conditions upon which alone the 1'rP«ident is authorised to restore the intercourse between tlie two countries, jiince it is an edii:l that violates the neutral commerce of the United States : not so a real blockade. This subject is particular^' treated in the litters in a late pamphlet from a Cosmopolite to a Cleigynian. 'J'liere is another biancli of this question, that sliouid not pass unno- ticed. In a late publication of the exports for seven year?, an average is made up of the four tirst, and of the three last y«ars Fallacies are easily piacticfd in these accounts; but the object lure is too ^'laring, it can be otily by showing a veisily e(iual iraJe on th( urernne of each lork- advofates for ed States, tlic piostitiilcd in of a ilt'.sire to ent will be as s an Order in he siibsc(|iirnt CR' is no donbt in blorkade h ,e l'.p«id»nt is wo countries, of the L'nited Mslar^' treated a Clei jiynian. not pas.s unno- iirp, an average Fallaeies are is too ^'taring, reratie of each Averages for lere tlie course irec la^f ytars, af;e? Can the ica were free, jxporttd, form ng none at all ? )LITE TO A the Snbjccts of ith remarks on relative to the uthentic docu. A LETTER, &C. MY LORD, ' 1 HE declaration published in the Times of yesterday having led to the following reflections, I ply your Lordshtp to receive then, as the dictate of that cor' d.al desire for harmonious intercourse between Great Bnta.n and the United States of America, which is „,o,t natural to a man having „o special bias to mislead h m. And when I assure your Lordship that I have no other motive, I am confident you will excuse the freedom M^ith which, to be better understood, I shall not hesitate to treat the subject. My chief object is to show the distinction, which ought to be made between French pretensions and JmeriL acqmescence,^iy^o objects which I am convinced have been most unwarrantably blended; and which, with all due deference, have been, and, in the document before us are continued to be so blended, without excuse on the part of his Majesty's ministers, and with a view to exten- uate measures, which, with the knowledge they ought to possess of the facts, cannot be excused. The obligation of liis Majesty's ministers, to distinguish in this case between French declarations and American acquiescence, might be very leadily shown : but I shall not grudge the trouble to take up the subject in the order in which it presents itsdf; and hope your Lordship will not find it tedious, though collateral considerations should necessarily be mixed in the narrative. I'he revocation of the decrees of Berlin and Milan, as announced in the letter of Champagny to General Arm- strong of the .5th of August, 1810, (the usual mode of such conimunicalioiis, as well in England, as in France,) is in the following words : " Dans ce nouvel ^tat de choses, Je suis autorise k vous declarer, Monsieur, que les decrets de Berlin et Milan sont revoques, et qu'au 1 Novembre, ils cesseront d'etre en force, bien entendu qu'en consequence de cctte declaration les Anglois revo- queront leurs Ordres di Conseil, et renonceront au nou- veau principe de blocus qu' ils ont tente d' etablir ; ou que les Etats Unis, conformement a /' ade que vous venez tie communiqner, fevont respecter leurs droits • par . les Anglois." Ou the form and manner of thi.s declaration I am aware. there are different constructions. On the part of France it is contended, that as the United States were .the only neutral power, it was to them alone that the renunciation, and the <;onditions of it, could be properly addressed. In England there are those that cousidcr, that the instrument of revocation should be of a more general tenor. How- ever this question may be settled in respect to any other party, it is clear that the mode, as respected the United States, w as unexceptionable. In what light it ought to have been viewed by his Majesty's ministers, will be best seen by a short analysis of the words of the act. The Berlin and Mil m decrees are declared to be r«- voked, and a dav is appointed, on which they shall ccasr to be in force, under certain conditions, with which his Majesty's government had previously bound itself in that case to comply ; or an alternative condition, with which the United States had bound themselves to comply. — The conditions required of England were, that she should revoke her Orders in Council, and renounce her new principle of blockade. — The principle of blockade here referred to i« evidently that blockade, which is no blockade, to wit, a blockade by proclamation, wanting all the essentials to constitute its legality, according to the construction of the law of nations, of the British courts of Admiralty, and of the government itself, as declared in numerous instances, and as particularly communicated to the United States through Mr. Merry, in his letters to Mr. Madison of the 12th of April, 1S04; and of which no justification has ever been pretended, save on the principle of retaliation, to which the revocation in question would put an end. — The pretence of the doctrine of blockade now set up by France, cannot, with any propriety, be made retrospec- tive, in aid of the construction .of the letter of Chanipagny above quoted. — ITie new principle therein referred to, — one and indivisible, as your Lordship will observe,— not new principles, — could only be that of blockade by proclama- tion, then lately set up. — Moreover, it will be seen in the sequel, that the pretensions now set up by the French government were, previously to that date, not only not avowed, but absolutely disavowed, by the government of the United States, in documents that could not fail to be known, as well by llie French, as by his Majesty's govern- nient.' Had the abandonment of the Orders in Council been the consequence of this revocation, or had any judicial 99tk April, 1812. ' In the uprrrh of Mr. Rose of lut evenin;; on tlie pttitions agaimt the Orders in Council, referrini; to the Berlin decree, he asserts that the French niinistir explained the exclusion of ships from places not fully blockaded, to mean from places not besieged by land, as well aa by sea ; but there is not a word of land in the caie. In the exordium to the Berlin decree he compluinst, that England declared blockaded places, before which she had not a single vessel of war ; — although a place ought not to be considered blockaded, but when it is so invested as that no approach to it can be made without imminent hazard. He also complains that England extends the right of blockade to ports not fortified, and leaves ample room for prevarication on the question of what constitutes a legal blockade. The evasions that he might have made, however, cannot, I conceive, be taken as conclusive of the question, even us between him and England, still less can they enter ipto the question of principle or construction, as between England and the United States. There is another passage in this speech of Mr. Kose, which cannot be overlooked. He thinks the blockade of the coast from Brest to the Elbe perfectly right, and asserts that " it was certainly legitimate on the ordinary principles of the law of nations^ for wo had u naval (orce/uUy competent to enforce the order." This is some- thing worse than Crede quod habcs, ct Imbes, — where the principle of the law of nations ia to be found, that supposes a blockade to exist because it might exist, I am at a losn to imagine. The sun shines at this mo- nicnt; it was cloudy an hour ago, and might have rained ; but it has not rained, neither docs it rain at present. From what h..s been asserted above, and still more from what follows, in the text, it ap- pears that no such very ordinary principles enter into the British con. Struction of the law of uations. There is yet another remark to he made on this speech of Mr. Kos^. The Right Honorable Gentleman is reported to have said as follows: " Then came the decree of Rambouillet, ordering the confiscation (he should have said sequestration) of Americun property, which was tan- tamount to a declaration of war ; and when Mr. Armstrong complained, he was told that the measure was consonant to the principles of eternal justice, and America was declared to be at war with England, whether cil ial Mt lat lot as I in ed a ed le ot of ve le er d r. le [. ir e e » I \J\ 7 ^decision shown that they had ipiso facto become null and void, I am rot prepared tu siiy, ihul iiu previiricatioii on the part of the rneiuy, nor any paramount intitsurcs would have been adopted, but clear it is tliat any such n»(;asurcs ahe would cr not." llii not tli be t'oii'ni in iLc French correspondence, as well as llio bpiritt "I aud appropriate an- swers of tlie government of the United Slates and its niini^tci <, m iiich may be seen in a Pamphlet lately publislied, intit.'ed '* The Di'>;'iite witli America considered, in a Series of Letters from a Cosmrpoliie to a Clergyman." But ^le error I wish particular. y to point out \i that which disparages the translation in the tc\t, respecting the eter- nal principles of justice. The words are (Cadore to Armstrong, tlth of Febnigry, 1810,) ; " Sa Majesty regarderait ses dccrels de Berlin et de Milan conime attentatoircs aux principcs dc justice ^tcrnellc, s'ih > n'^toicnt la consequent obligee des arrets du conseil Britaniqiie, et lurtout de ceiix de Novembre, ii)07." Surely these word^, which, however, I find the Right Honorable Vice-President may have seen erroneously translated in the News- papers, convey a meaning even with respect to the decrees they tfeat of, very different from what could be imagined from those mistaken by iiini; and as I find M. de Cudore, in tliis same letter, desiring Mr. Arinitroiig not to submit to any blockade which is not real, " ui a aucun d^cret de blocus, a moins que ce blocus ne soit reel," I cannot but consider how different his pretexts must' have been, if instead of the competency above mentioned, the Right Honorable Gentleman kad h««n able to usart the fact. 8 would have been obnoxious to the severest censure, and wouhi have thrown on him the odium from tlie pco* pie on the continent, which he hast dexterously turned upon his adversary. Not only the worda of the decrees themselves would in such case be turned against him, but the very strong expression in the note of the Minister of exterior relations to Cjencrai Armstrong, of the 14th of February, IrtlO; "His Majesty would consider his decrees of lierlin and Milan, as violating the principles of eternal justice, if they were not the necessary consequence of the British Orders in Council, and, above ull, of those of November, 1807." Tlu: alternative enjoined on the United States, as de- pending on themselves, was simply that they should make their rights respected, conformably to the law, which they had promised in such case to put into execution^, and while that law remains in force as the evidence of their resistance of the unlawful invasion of their rights ; their flag cannot be considered denationalized. The period, within which it would have been competent for govern- ment to revoke the Orders in Council, is not accurately defined ; but if at iiny time between the oth of August, (the date of the revocation) and the first of November, when it was to take effect, the Orders in Council had been withdrawn, Bonaparte would have had no excuse, for maintaining his decrees, that would have satisfied his sub- jects, or his vassals. I have no doubt, my Lord, that the event, as it turned out, was much more conformable M'ith his views, and indeed precisely that which he con-f tenipluted. This, however, is the view of the case as be- tween France and England : the main object of my troub- ling your Lordship : — the difference between the preten-» sions of France and the acquiescence of America, is yet to bu cuiisidcrcd. Ami liore 1 will not stop to inquire by what fatuity, or by what tlcsi^n, but shall simply observe, that it does appear to nii*, there is, somewhere, a latent determination to Enthrall the United States in the war against England, and to cajol