nothing could be more extravagant. If the chose to violate the law enemy of nations, in a case in which he had nothing to lose, while we had every thing at stake, could it be seriously pretended that we were bound to retaliate, not where we could make him feel the consequences of his folly, but where we could do him no possible injury?—The object of the orders in council was not to destroy the trade of the continent, but to compel the continent to trade with England, and with England alone.-That must have been an absurd species of reasoning which attributed the recent difficulties of trade to these orders, when it was incontestably proved, that for two or three years after they were issued, an effect directly opposite had resulted, and when the embarrassments of commerce had been so clearly traced to other causes. In answer to those who complained of the immorality of the licence system, as displayed in the form of the licences themselves, it was remarked, that the very clause which had been censured with so much severity, had been drawn up by a former administration, and found by the present ministers in their offices, prepared and digested by the very persons who now affected to be so much scandalised by the discovery. That the real question upon this branch of the subject was, if trade cannot be car

ried on with certain countries except by means of licences, are the objections to that system so formidable that the trade must be abandoned rather than have recourse to it? It was a foolish notion to suppose that the orders in council had no effect on the trade of France; the diminished produce of the French customs contradicted such an opinion; and in an address of the senate to Buonaparte, it was acknowledged that the French no longer had any trade, except what was carried on by means of canals; while it was admitted, without hesitation, that they laboured in all respects under the most unexampled difficulties. -That on no principle was Great Britain bound to suffer France to give laws to neutral powers, without making an effort to induce them to assert their rights. The grand object of the orders in council had been not only to inflict retaliation on France, but to induce America to disengage herself from a connection in which she had unhappily been involved, and to resume her consequence and independence among the nations of the world. Such is the substance of these famous discussions in both houses of parliament; and the result was, that the motions of the Marquis of Lansdowne and Mr Brougham were negatived by a very great majority.

THE frequent acts of plunder and confiscation committed by the French, seemed for a time to have some effect on the councils of the United States, and to have encouraged a pacific disposition towards Great Britain, which was, perhaps, not a little strengthen ed by the disclosures so recently made as to the state of the American finances. Yet the proposals submit ted to the British government were perhaps not very sincere, but intend. ed merely for the purpose of gaining time. An offer was made by America to establish, under some important modifications, the treaty which was signed by the plenipotentiaries of the two governments in the year 1806, but which Mr Jefferson refused at that time to ratify. The American government must have known, however, that England could not, without surrendering all her pretensions, accede to such a proposition. In the mean time the Americans were making preparations for war; a loan of eleven millions of dollars was proposed for the service of the year; the interest upon which was to be paid by an in

crease of the duties on importation. The loans for 1813 and 1814 were at the same time estimated at eighteen millions each year; and although a vigorous opposition was made to a measure which threatened to subject the citizens of the United States to a severe system of taxation which they were unable to bear, the bill at last received the sanction of the legis lature.

A bill of a most extraordinary na. ture was about the same time introduced, which provided that any fo reigner guilty of impressing American citizens on board a foreign ship, should, when arrested, be tried, and, if convicted, suffer death as a pirate. The object of this, as well as of the other measures adopted at this period, could not be mistaken; and the general hostility towards England seemed to increase in spite of the vain attempts at negociation, which the American government still continued to pursue.

An event occurred about this time which imperiously demanded of the British government, a distinct avowal of its principles in the new state of

commercial warfare in which the world had been involved. On the 10th of March the French minister for fo. reign affairs presented to the conservative senate an official report, by which all doubt as to the perseverance of the French ruler in the assertion of his extravagant principles was removed. The British government immediately issued a declaration, in which it was stated, that the novel and extraordinary principles to which the French government had recourse, had called for measures of retaliation on

the part of England; that the king had always been desirous to exercise his undoubted right with as little injury as possible to the commerce of neutrals, and had at all times professed his readiness to revoke the orders in council, so soon as the decrees of the enemy were fairly repealed, and the commerce of neutral nations restored to its accustomed course.--That the state of Europe in the year 1809 had enabled his majesty to reduce these beneficent views to practice, and to confine the retaliatory measures to France, and the countries on which the French yoke had been most strictly imposed; and his majesty had readily availed himself of so favourable an opportunity for abridging the miseries of war. That the government of the United States had still remained dissatisfied. It had been pretended that the French decrees were revoked, although ample proofs of their execution at a recent period had been brought forward.-That the enemy had now, however, laid aside all dissimulation, and had declared that the ships of every power which refused to acknowledge his principles were, to use the language of his code, denationalized. That in addition to the disavowal of the blockade of 1806, and the repeal of the orders in council, he demanded the admission of the prin

ciple, that free ships should make free goods; that neutral property in the hands of enemies should be treated as hostile; that arms and warlike stores alone, to the exclusion of ship timber, and other articles of naval equipment, should be regarded as contraband of war; and that no ports should be considered as lawfully blockaded, except such as were invested and besieged, in the presumption of their being taken, and into which no merchant ship could enter with safety.

The enemy thus demanded that the established law of nations should be overthrown, that Great Britain should forego the advantages of her naval superiority, and that her commerce should be excluded from every country of the world, to which the influence of France might extend.-That, acting on this principle, the enemy did not hesitate to incorporate with his own dominions all states which refused to sacrifice their national honour at his command.-That the provisions of the treaty of Utrecht, which were founded on a voluntary compact, were referred to as evidence of principles which were to be established by force; and that France had thus departed from the very conditions on which the pretended repeal of her decrees had been accepted by America.—That it had, therefore, become the duty of America to relax the measures of severity, which by misconception she had adopted towards Great Britain; and as a proof of the desire of the British government to fulfil its engagements, it was declared that so soon as the Berlin and Milan decrees should be actually and unconditionally revoked, the British orders in council should be considered, without any farther declaration, as at an end; reserving at the same time to the king the most ample powers to re-establish any measures of this kind, should it after

wards appear that the repeal by the enemy had been illusory.

Such was the just and magnanimous declaration issued by the British government. In England, however, it was considered by the enemies of the orders in council as a reply to the petitions before parliament, complaining of the distresses occasioned by these orders; and it was no sooner issued, than Lord Stanley brought forward a motion in the House of Commons, for referring these petitions to the consideration of a committee of the whole House. There was not much novelty in the arguments by which this motion was supported. With reference to the terms of the declaration, it was asserted that the measures of the French government were neither new nor extraordinary; but had in principle been adopted, although executed with less rigour by England in the years 1739 and 1756; and were precisely such in fact as all 'independent states had a right to pursue. That the measures of the French government had proved wholly impotent, till they were supported by the retaliatory system to which England had recourse. That the petitions on the table concurred in attributing the distresses of the country to the orders in council; yet the declaration lately issued had announced the resolution of government to abide by its prin ciples, without regard to the general misery which appeared in every district of the country.-That this resolution reduced the measures of the British government, and the prosperity of British commerce, to a dependence on the will of the enemy; and that although it had become impossible to obtain employment for the lower or ders, and the price of provisions was rapidly advancing, there seemed to be no prospect of redress.-In answer to these speculations, it was stated by Mr Rose, who on all occa

sions discovered a very accurate knowledge of this subject, that by the Berlin decree, if British goods were found on board of an American ship trading between America and China, they must be forfeited; and that it was, therefore, absurd to talk of the decree as a mere municipal regulation. He observed also, that although the Berlin decree had been in a great measure inoperative until the peace of Tilsit, because the enemy had not till that pe. riod the means of enforcing it, yet immediately afterwards the French had marched their troops into all parts of the continent, for the purpose of carrying their system into effect, and the consequences had been immediately felt in the extreme depression of the commerce of this country.-Among the evils which would result from the repeal of the orders in council in the existing state of Europe, Mr Rose mentioned, that as the ports of France would then be opened to American com. merce, the enemy would easily be supplied with the raw materials, and would be enabled to manufacture them, and to compete with England directly in the markets of South America, and in every other place to which her precarious trade might extend.-That the falling off in the direct trade of this country to America had been, in a great measure, compensated by the increase of our exports to other countries, to which the same commodities had formerly been carried in Ameri can ships. A curious fact was also stated by this gentleman respecting the trade of America. Of her exports, amounting annually in value to fortyfive millions of dollars, thirty-eight went to England and her allies, and only two millions to France and her dependencies, whose friendship the government of America seemed so anxi ous to cultivate.-But there was no necessity for a protracted debate; the distresses of the country were unques

tionably great; the people seemed to look to the repeal of the orders in council as a source of relief; and in such circumstances the ministers did not think of resisting enquiry, but gave their consent to the motion for appointing a committee.

A circumstance of an extraordinary nature was about this time communicated by a message from the president of the United States to congress.-The message stated, that while the United States were at peace with Great Britain, a secret agent of the British government had been employed in certain states, more especially at the seat of government at Massachusets, in fomenting disaffection to the constituted authorities of the country, for the purpose of seducing the southern parts of the Union into a political connection with Great Britain.-The message was accompanied with various documents. The secret agent alluded to was a person of the name of Henry, who pretended to the American government, that he had been employed for the purposes stated in the message, and had been induced to make the discovery, by the refusal of the British government to give him his reward.— The documents referred to had been transmitted in a letter from Henry to Mr Munro, the American secretary state; and in this letter Henry confessed his strong feelings of disappointment and of revenge towards those who had employed him. The first of the documents produced with the message was a letter from Sir James Craig's secretary to Henry, dated at Quebec in January, 1809, and desiring to know, whether he would undertake a secret and confidential mission to Boston. The second, which was dated February in the same year, contained Sir James Craig's instructions to Henry, in which the latter is desired to form an acquaintance with some of the leading federalists of the

of

The memorial was

southern states, to ascertain their opinions as to the policy of a separation from the Union, and their dis position to avail themselves of the assistance of the British government. In a memorial to Lord Liverpool, which was found among the papers, Henry took credit to himself for the services which he had performed, by influencing the public acts and legisla tive resolutions of the assemblies of Massachusets and Connecticut, by means of which the general government was kept in check, and its hostility towards Great Britain considerably moderated. inclosed in a letter addressed to Mr Peele, and claimed a handsome reward from government.-Another of the documents purported to be a letter from Mr Peele, written by desire of Lord Liverpool, in which it was stated, that as the opinion of Sir James Craig respecting the merits and services of Henry had not been received, and as no wish had been expressed by Sir James that the claim should be referred to this country, it had been determined to transmit Henry's memorial to Sir James Craig's successor in the government of North America. The other branches of the correspondence were of little or no importance.

The above intelligence no sooner reached England, than a motion was made in the House of Lords by Lord Holland, for copies of the whole cor respondence relating to the pretended employment of Henry.-The grounds of this motion, said its supporters, were obvious; a serious charge affecting the honour of the country had been made by the American government, and it was proper to have it investigated. The British ministers had been charged not merely with employ ing Henry to obtain intelligence on subjects which might be lawfully enquired into, but to induce some of the states of