"The American government, assuming the repeal of the French decrees to be absolute and effectual, most unjustly required Great Britain, in conformity to her declarations, to revoke her orders in council. The British government de-. nied that the repeal, which was announced in the letter of the French minister for foreign affairs, was such as ought to satisfy Great Britain; and in order to ascertain the true character of the measure adopted by France, the government of the United States was called upon to produce the instrument, by which the alleged appeal of the French decrees had been effected. If these decrees were really revoked, such an instrument must exist, and no satisfactory reason could be given for withholding it.

"At length, on the 21st of May, 1812, and not before, the American minister in London did produce a copy, or at least what purported to be a copy, of such an instrument.

"It professed to bear date the 28th of April, 1811, long subsequent to the dispatch of the French minister of foreign affairs of the 5th of August, 1810, or even the day named therein; viz. the 1st of November following, when the operation of the French decrees was to cease. This instrument expressly declared that these French decrees were repealed in consequence of the American legislature having, by their act of the 1st of March, 1811, provided that British

ships and merchandize should be excluded from the 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 alleged repeal of the French decrees was conditional, as Great Britain had asserted, and not absolute or final, as had been maintained by America: that they were not repealed at the time they were stated to be repealed by the American government; that they were not repealed in conformity with a propositition simultaneously made to both belligerents; but that in consequence of a previous act on the part of the American government, they were repealed in favour of one belligerent, to the prejudice of the other; that the American government having adopted measures restrictive upon the commerce of both belligerents, in consequence of edicts issued by both, rescinded these measures, as they affected that power which was the aggressor, whilst they put them in full operation against the party aggrieved, although the edicts of both powers continued in force; and, lastly, that they excluded the ships of war belonging to one belligerent, whilst they admitted into their ports and harbours the ships of war belonging to the other, in violation

of one of the plainest and most essential duties of a neutral nation.

"Although the instrument thus produced, was by no means that general and unqualified revocation of the Berlin and Milan decrees which Great Britain had continually demanded, and had a full right to claim; and although this instrument, under all the circumstances of its appearance at that moment, for the first time, was open to the strongest suspicions of its authentieity; yet, as the minister of the United States produced it, as purporting to be a copy of the instrument of revocation, the government of Great Britain, desirous of reverting, if possible, to the ancient and accustomed principles of ma ritime war, determined upon revoking, condi tionally, the orders in council. Accordingly, in the month of June last, his 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 revoked, as far as respected the ships and property of the United States, from the 1st of August following. This revocation was to continue in force, provided the government of the United States should, within a time to be limited, repeal their restrictive laws against British commerce. His majesty's minister in America was expressly ordered to declare 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 retaliatory measures, unnecessary; or, if 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 the United States, into au:icable explanations, for the purpose of ascertaining whether, if the necessity of retaliatory measures should unfortunately continue to operate, the particular measures to be acted upon by Great Britain could be rendered more acceptable to the American government than those hitherto pursued.'

"In order to provide for the contingency of a declaration of war on the part of the United States, previous to the arrival in America of the said order of revocation, instructions were sent to his majesty's minister plenipotentiary, accredited to the United States, (the execution of which instructions, in consequence of the discontinuance of Mr. Foster's functions, were, at a subsequent period, entrusted to admiral Sir John Borlase Warren,) directing him to propose a cessation of hostilities, should they have commenced; and, further, to offer a simultaneous

repeal of the orders in council, on the one side, and of the restrictive laws on British ships and commerce, on the other.

"They were also respectively empowered to acquaint the American government, in reply to any inquiries with respect to the blockade of May, 1806, whilst the British government must continue to maintain its legality, 'that, in point of fact, this particular blockade had been discontinued for a length of time, having been merged in the general retaliatory blockade of the enemy's ports, under the orders in council; and that his majesty's government had no intention of recurring to this, or to any other of the blockades of the enemy's ports, founded upon the ordinary and accustomed principles of maritime law, which were in force previous to the orders in council, without a new notice to neutral powers, in the usual form.'

"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, and issuing letters of marque, notwithstanding they were previously in possession of the report of the French minister for foreign affairs, of the 12th of March, 1812, promulgating anew the Berlin and Milan decrees as fundamental laws of the French empire, under the false and extravagant pretext, that the monstrous principles