ean navies, had ceased to be to them a safe tain whether the coast from the Elbe to Brest highway to commercial affluence. Their could be guarded, and the blockade effectually ships, liable to be captured by one or other of enforced. The French Emperor, on the other the belligerents, could only at great risk carry hand, proclaimed the blockade of the entire on their commercial intercourse with either. coast of the British Isles,-no half-dozen ports But it must be remembered that the United of which could he have actually invested with States, not having interfered when their inter- his navy, shattered and almost extinguished position might possibly have checked Bona- as that had been, by the gigantic victories of parte, and perhaps recalled him within the Great Britain at sea. Thus to attempt, by limits of international law, made no effort to means of a wrathful manifesto what the law arrest and remove at once the original cause of nations recognizes as the function only of a of their subsequent misfortunes; so that it is sufficient naval force-which naval force he impossible to say how far they had themselves had not-was an outrage on international law, to blame for those misfortunes. That the not surprising in the man to whom the rights attitude which they might have assumed, had of nations were a fiction, and treaties medithey chosen, was likely to have some influence tated treachery and violence in masquerade; on Bonaparte, can hardly be doubted. He but it is incongruous and startling that such thought it worth his while to manoeuvre in an outbreak of lawless and anti-commercial various ways—at one time pillaging, at another rage-such a mercantile excommunication of flattering them in the hope of either driving England, as we may call it,—should have ever or coaxing them into a war with Great Britain. found apologists on this side of the Atlantic, Their policy, therefore, was not a matter of amongst a people, like the inhabitants of the indifference to him; so that we may not ven- United States, animated by an ardent spirit of ture to say with what effect remonstrance commercial enterprise, and claiming, even in from that quarter might not have been attended. advance of Great Britain herself, the possesAs to the eminently characteristic avowal of sion of free institutions.* attachment," His Majesty loves the Americans," which, after a while, he thought might answer his purpose better than spoliation, the people of the United States have no doubt made up their minds by this time as to what interpretation they ought to put on that declaration—as to whether it be genuine regard or shameless effrontery. His protestation of love may be accepted for what it was worth; but the fear of compelling the United States to throw themselves eventually into the arms of Great Britain might have induced him to treat a remonstrance from that republic with at least some respect. It was pleaded by Liberality of the The perfect honesty of the plea of absolute necessity, advanced by the British Government, agrees with their liberal and even munificent treatment of the United States, in regard to the commerce of that country, as a neutral State, prior to the Berlin Manifesto. In 1803, when hostilities with France were renewed, the commanders of His Britannic Majesty's ships of war and privateers, were instructed "not to seize any neutral vessels which should be found carrying on trade directly between the colonies of the enemy and the neutral country; provided Nine-tenths of the revenue of the United Plea advanced by France and repeated by the United States. France, and the plea was echoed by the United States, that the British blockade of May, 1806, as constituting the first aggression, justified the Berlin decree; but the two cases were, in principle, widely different. The blockade declared by Great Britain embraced no greater extent of coast than the immense strength of the British Navy supplied the means of adequately watching; and special pains were taken beforehand, by communication with the Admiralty, to ascer-tended them to grow." States was at this time derived from commerce; yet their bias lay with a man who was a downright hater of commerce; who evinced a sort of fanatical malice against commerce. His policy was to make France independent of commerce (a scheme wilder than the Crusades!); and in his efforts to realize this, he literally attempted to force nature herself into subservience to him:-"Enacting penal statutes to force the cultivator of the soil to employ his land in endeavouring to raise certain products in a climate ungenial to their and tobacco and indigo, where nature never ingrowth: to plant beet instead of corn; and cotton 1807. that such neutral vessel should not be supply-lence on its author's head," and as such, a ing, nor should, on the outer voyage, have measure of just retaliation. supplied the enemy with any articles contraband of war, and should not be trading with any blockaded, (that is, actually blockaded,) ports." The generosity, and the value of this indulgence, for indulgence it literally was, are to be appreciated from the fact, that it had been a law generally understood and acted upon for a century, at least, that "a neutral has no right to carry on a trade with the colonies of one of two, or more, belligerent powers in time of war." Great Britain, however, during her contest with revolutionary France, relaxed this rule in 1794, and still further in 1798, when permission was granted to neutrals to carry the produce of the French West Indian colonies, either to a British port, or to any one of their own ports. This relaxation had the effect of throwing the French carrying trade almost wholly into the hands of the United States, and from it the commerce of that country prospered amazingly,-great wealth being realised by American merchants, who were able to make a lucrative profit out of British munificence, and, as it was shown, to the de-go triment of British commerce. Even so late as 1806, when, to arrest the farther introduction of supplies into France from the United States, the blookade from the Elbe to Brest was declared, the interests of the American Republic were specially consulted, in an explanation communicated by Mr. Fox to Mr. Monroe, that "such blockade should not extend to Embargo Act of U. Despatches from the S. Congress,25th Dec. United States Minister at Paris-General Armstrong-were received at Washington on the 16th December, 1807, from which it appeared plainly that the confiscation of the American ship Horizon* was merely the first enforcement of a rule which the French government intended to pursue; and that, consequently, it was no part of the Emperor's policy to exempt the United States from the operation of the Berlin Decree. Intelligence was brought at the same time, through London papers of the 12th November, to the effect "that orders in council were about to be issued, declaring France and the countries under her control in a state of blockade, a reference no doubt to the orders dated the day before, but which had not then been published, and were not until a week afterward." At this period it was that the first step in the way of commercial restriction was taken by the United States. An embar was laid on all the shipping in their ports, the measure being recommended to Congress, on the mere responsibility of the executive,‡ and passed with the utmost precipitation. "It prohibited the departure, unless by special direction of the President, of any vessel from any port of the United States bound to any foreign country, except foreign armed vessels possessing public commissions, and foreign merchant ships in ballast, or with such cargo as they might have on board when notified of the act. All registered or sea-letter vessels-the latter denomination including fo prevent neutral ships and vessels laden with This was the first confiscation of American property under the Berlin decree, and occurred on the 10th November, 1807. The Horizon had accidentally been stranded on the French coast; and the ground of confiscation was that the cargo consisted of merchandise of British origin.-Hil + Hildreth. On this occasion John Quincy Adams, who had recently abandoned the federal party and, unhappily, had lent the aid of his remarkable powers to the democrats, supported the government with vehement zeal. "The President, he urged, has recommended this measure on his high responsibility. I would not consider. I would not deliberate, I would act. Doubtless the President possesses such further information as ope Public feeling in the States unfriendly to Great Britain. reign-built vessels owned by Americans-ration for the affair of the Chesapeake. There which, during this restriction from foreign was an indispensable preliminary, however, voyages, might engage in the coasting trade, that the President's proclamation* of the 2d were to give bonds, in double the value of the July should be previously withdrawn. Before cargo, to re-land the same within the United this should have been done, he stated that he States. "Thus"--Mr. Hildreth forcibly remarks had no authority to enter on any negotiation, in regard to the legislative proceedings of his and even declined to specify the reparation own countrymen on this occasion-" on the which he was empowered to offer. As the mere recommendation of the executive, almost President declined recalling the proclamation without debate, with closed doors, without Mr. Rose returned home, and the settlement any previous intimation to the public, or op- of the difficulty was postponed. portunity for advice from those most able to give it, was forced through, by night sessions, Throughout the irritaand the overbearing determination of a maing discussion which enjority at once pliable and obstinate, an act sued, the disposition of the American Repubstriking a deadly blow at the national indus- lic is to be taken into account, as evidently try, and at the means of livelihood of great operating to protract and embarrass negotianumbers; the real nature and inevitable tion. That disposition was unquestionably ration of which seem to have been equally the reverse of amicable towards Great Britain. misapprehended by the cabinet which recom- Whilst the effort was made to remain strictly mended, and by the supple majority which neutral, the heart of the nation was not in its conceded it." The embargo thus imposed was profession of neutrality. Ever since the accesafterwards made still more stringent by sup- sion of the Democratic party to power under plementary measures denouncing severe pen- Mr. Jefferson-who was inaugurated into his alties, and excluding foreign vessels from the first Presidency on the 4th arch, 1801-the coasting trade altogether. war spirit against Great Britain was steadily growing up, with some few exceptions, amongst the inhabitants of the United States. Under the administration of that rigid republican and philosopher of the Rousseau school, the idea of quarrelling with Great Britain seems to have become, by degrees, palatable rather than "In whatever spirit that instrument was is- otherwise to the party who raised him to the sued, it is sufficiently obvious, that it has been productive of considerable prejudice to his ma-chief Magistracy, and these formed a large jesty's interests, as considered to his military and majority. We do not forget, however, that other servants in the United States, to the honor in the very respectable minority, chiefly in the of his flag, and to the privileges of his ministers accredited to the American government. From the operation of this proclamation have unavoidably resulted effects of retaliation, and self-assumed redress, which might be held to affect materially the question of the reparation due to the United States, especially inasmuch as its execution has been persevered in after the knowledge of his Majesty's early, unequivocal, and unsolicited disavowal of the unauthorized act of Admiral Berkeley-his disclaimer of the pretensions exhibited by that officer to search the national ships of a friendly power for deserters, and the assurances of prompt and effectual reparation, all communicated without loss of time, to the minister of the United States in London, so as not to leave a doubt as to his Majesty's just and amicable intentions. But his Majesty, making every allowance policy, the controversy which preceded the for the irritation which was excited, and the mis-declaration of war. Mr. Rose's Mission. On the 25th December Mr. Rose, envoy extraordinary of Great Britain, arrived in the United States, with instructions from our government to offer repa Eastern States, who participated not in the defiant spirit so widely cherished and exhibited towards Great Britain, were to be found that sterling part of the nation who, in point of fortune, talent, education, moral and religious principles, have always compared most favorably with the rest of their countrymen. It is evident that the well known prevalence of a predilection for France and antipathy towards her adversary, must have materially influenced, in a manner injurious on either side to just and reasonable and advantageous apprehensions which existed, has authorized me Whilst Great Britain had reason to be exto proceed in the negotiation upon the sole dis continuance of measures of so inimical a ten-tremely cautious in negotiation, for, as we shall dency."-Mr. Rose to Mr. Madison. see hereafter, France had laid a deep plot against her through the United States!-the was highly prejudicial to the United States. latter country, on the other hand, would jeal- Their commerce had received the severest ously, but most unworthily, guard against con-blow it had yet suffered, from the hands of ceding, except for its own obvious benefit, and not always even then, anything likely to strengthen the hands of the British Government in the terrible contest it was waging with that colossal despotism which threatened to bear down and obliterate, beneath its withering tread, the last vestige of free institutions in Europe.* Additions to the U. S. troops voted by Congress, with supplies. their own rulers. Despair settled on the minds of all who depended for their livelihood on the sea. Merchants gloomily anticipated the time when their ships should sink beside their wharves, and grass grow in their streets. The British Order in Council-they said—had left them some traffic, but the acts of their own legislature had cut every thing off. By men who were never tired of asserting their free On the application of and inalienable right to the highways of the ocean, the ocean had been treacherously abandoned. the President at this made to the army of 6,000 men, to be enlist- Effect of the Embargo. The effect of the embargo and its supplementary exacerbations-as we may style the rigorous enforcement-acts which followed it which the commercial intercourse of the United States was altogether inconsiderable." For the embargo was Non-intercourse Act, 1st March, 1808. substituted, on the 1st March, 1808, a non-intercourse act, whereby all commercial transactions with either of the belligerent powers was absolutely prohibited, but the embargo was taken off as to the rest of the world. This act, however, contained a clause (§ 11.) authorizing the President, by proclamation, to renew the intercourse between America and either of the belligerent powers who should first repeal their ob* In his message to Congress of 5th Novem- noxious orders in council or decrees. "This ber, 1811, Mr. Madison, at that time president, non-intercourse act"-observes Mr. Alisonspoke thus with reference to what he termed had the effect of totally suspending the trade "the hostile inflexibility" of Great Britain"Congress will feel the duty of putting the Unit- between America and Great Britain, and ined States into an armour and an attitude demand- flicting upon both these countries a loss tened by the crisis, and corresponding with the fold greater than that suffered by France, with national spirit and expectations.' But four years before, upon the passing of the embargo act, The Intelligencer, an official journal, did not hesitate to write in this inflammatory strain:"The national spirit is up. That spirit is invaluable. In case of war it is to lead us to conquest. In such event, there must cease to be an inch of British ground on this Continent." And this was when the second Order in Council had only been heard of, but not yet made public. With a government, so fiercely thirsting for strife with Britain, was friendly negotiation likely to be successful? Was an amicable adjustment of difficulties possible with the spirit which possessed them? Hildreth cites a remarkable incident which exhibits, in a strong light, the unhappy hostility to England at this period (1807-8). How strong and prevalent this antipathy to England was, fully appeared on the floor of Congress. A suggestion by Livermore, of Massachussetts, that, since the United States were driven by invincible necessity to choose between the belligerents, a regard as well for commercial interests as for the independence of nations, ought to induce them to aide with Great Britain, was received with marked indignation, almost as if there had been something treasonable in it.' 3d March, 1809. Nothing of note occurred between the passing of the nonintercourse act and Mr. Jefferson's retirement from his second term of office on the 3d of March, 1809. He declined presenting himself for election a third time, both because-as he stated-he considered a third tenure of office would be alien from the spirit of the constitution, and because, as it seems, he was thoroughly weary of the cares and distractions of public life. On the eve of his retirement into private life his language was this never did prisoner released from his chains feel such relief as I shall on shaking off power." He was a man of great ability; but, unfortunately, both for Great Britain and his own country, his strong anti-British pre judices stood very much in his way in admi- not stifled when republicanism in France had been fairly shackled and put under-foot by military and imperial despotism; so that his heart, it seems, still went lovingly with the ruthless soldiers of France, even when the "sacred" flame of republicanism had long vanished from the points of their swords. But, if Mr. Jefferson's administration, in point of French predilections, was bad, that of Mr. Madison, his successor, was vastly worse. Both were decided in their bias towards Napoleon Buonaparte; but whilst the former was too dextrous and wary to be made the tool of French intrigue, the latter-there is too much reason for believing-was completely entangled in its toils. (To be continued.) BERLIN DECREE. nistering, with impartiality and wisdom, the government with which during eight years he was entrusted. We can make allowance for the perplexities and annoyances of the time during which he held the reins of power; but, had Washington been in his place, with his dignified and sagacious views of relations with Great Britain, we have little doubt that he would have brought his country through the dark and trying time, not by nourishing the war-spirit as Jefferson did, but by firmly facing and repressing it. It was an inauspicious circumstance that, just at that critical time, the chief magistracy of the United States should have been vested in a man whose heart was filled with hatred of Great Britain; and who had more than once patronized and placed in positions of authority dis affected subjects of the British Crown.* Liberally endowed, as he unquestionably was, with natural talent, this was greatly recommended and rendered in a very considerable degree practically influential, by agreeable manners and plausible address. As to his religious opinions, we believe that all that can be said in their favor is this-that he admired the morality of the Gospel. His belief in any of the articles of the Christian faith what-made prisoners of war. 4. Every warehouse, soever would seem equivocal, if on no other account, from his letter to the notorious Tho mas Paine, in which he invited that avowed and immoral enemy of divine revelation to the bosom of his country, with "prayers for the success of his useful labors." A disciple—as he was—of that philosophy which overthrew the throne of the French monarch, and brought its unhappy occupant to the guillotine, his sympathies were thoroughly the present decree, shall be received into any harwith France and against Great Britain. Nur- bour. 8. Every vessel which, by means of a false tured under the congenial associations of declaration, shall have effected such entry, shall French republicanism,t his sympathies-as be confiscated, as it they had also belonged to be liable to seizure, and the ship and cargo shall with many others of his countrymen-were "1. The British islands are placed in a state of blockade. 2. Every species of commerce and communication with them is prohibited; all letters or packets addressed in English, or in the English characters, shall be seized at the postoffice, and interdicted all circulation. 38. Every British subject, of what rank or condition whatever, who shall be found in the countries occupied by our troops, or those of our allies, shall be merchandise, or property of any sort, belonging to a subject of Great Britain, or coming from its manufactories or colonies, is declared good prize. 5. Commerce of every kind in English goods is prohibited; and every species of merchandise belonging to England, or emanating from its workshops or colonies, is declared good prize. 6. The half of the confiscated value shall be devoted to indemnifying those merchants whose vessels have been seized by the English cruizers, for the losses which they have sustained. 7. No vessel coming directly from England, or any of its colonies, or having touched there since the publications of England. 9. The prize court of Paris is intrusted with the determination of all questions arising out of this decree in France, or the countries occupied by our armies; that of Milan, with the decision of * Duane, for example, to whom Mr. Jefferson all similar questions in the kingdom of Italy. 10. gave a colonel's commission in the U. S. militia, This decree shall be communicated to the kings and the editorial charge of the Aurora newspaper, of Spain, Naples, Holland, and Etruria, and to our had been shipped off just before from Calcutta- other allies, whose subjects have been the victims, having been detected in attempts to excite dis-like our own, of the injustice and barbarity of turbance and insurrection in that city. We do not mean to say he approved of its bloody atrocities: perhaps the wildest democrat in the United States would have hesitated there. English legislation. 11. The ministers of foreign affairs, of war, of marine, of finance, and of jus tice, of police, and all postmasters, are charged, each in his own department, with the execution of the present decree." |