the numerous Americans who come recommended to them from the most respectable characters, and from all quarters of the Union. Such are the inevitable effects of this situation upon the estimation of a country whose representative is thus exhibited to the public view, that I am convinced there must be a change of the system. The permanent missions abroad must be exclusively given to men of large fortune, willing to expend it liberally, or there must be a considerable increase of the salaries.

I am not of opinion that an allowance of a salary to consuls would be either necessary or expedient. But a consul general in England, France, and perhaps each of the maritime countries of Europe where there is no diplomatic mission, might be useful, and would require a salary or some equivalent mode of compensation. I have already more than once suggested the indispensable necessity of a salary to the consul at the port of London, or of bestowing the office upon a merchant who would hold it in connection with a commercial establishment.

Since I had the honor of writing you I have received a packet from your Department containing a file of the National Intelligencer from the 1st to the 13th of June.

I have heretofore enclosed to you a printed copy of the

first act of Parliament passed at the late session, for carrying into effect the Commercial Conventions of 3 July, 1815. I now transmit copies of two other acts supplementary to it, and of my correspondence with this government relating to several objects connected with and depending on it.1

1. Conveyance of passengers from Ireland to the United States.

By an act of Parliament passed the 24th of June, 1803, it was provided that foreign vessels taking passengers from the ports of the United Kingdom should be permitted to take only one person for every five tons. From December last I have been receiving frequent letters from Ireland complaining of this regulation as affecting the shipping of the two countries, and operating as a discrimination in favor of British and to the disadvantage of American vessels in the ports of Ireland. I have already enclosed to you copies of my first note to Lord Castlereagh upon this subject, of his answer, and of my reply. And I have reported the substance of several conversations with him and with Mr. Robinson, the Vice-President of the Board of Trade in relation to it. It was at first contended that the discrimination did not come within the purview of the treaty, and Lord Castlereagh insisted that the policy of the act was not the discrimination of shipping, but to check emigration. After some time, however, he promised that the shipping of the two countries should be placed on the same footing, and the result is the act of 1 July, 1816, by which the restrictions of the prior law laid upon foreign vessels are now extended to British vessels. I send you a printed copy of both the acts. 2. Clearance of American vessels direct from British European ports to British ports in India. After the passage

1 For a conversation with Lord Castlereagh on the questions between the United States and Great Britain, see Adams, Memoirs, July 18, 1816.

of the first act of Parliament carrying the convention into effect, clearances were refused to American vessels here bound to British ports in India. Messrs. G. and J. Abel and Co., after failing in applications for that purpose to the India House and to the Board of Control, addressed a letter to me, with copies of the answers which they had received from those offices. I made immediate application to Lord Castlereagh and furnished him with copies of those papers. After some time he informed me that a bill would be introduced into Parliament to allow those clearances. In the interval there had been some discussion between Mr. Robinson and me, whether this direct trade in American vessels from Great Britain to the British ports in India was implied in the commercial convention or not. He observed that even any indirect trade from the United States to British India was not expressly stipulated in the convention, and urged that it could not be supposed that Great Britain intended to permit American vessels to go from her own ports in immediate competition with her own subjects. I admitted that the indirect trade from the United States was contained in the convention, not by express words but only by necessary implication. Mr. Robinson did not contest that it had been so fully understood at the conclusion of the convention, and I observed that it was explicitly recognized in the notes of the British plenipotentiaries during the negotiation. And the general indirect trade being thus conceded, I insisted that no exception from it of the European British ports was to be presumed; but that if such an exception had been intended, it must have been expressed. I also insisted that this exception, if persevered in, could have ultimately no effect to give the British navigation exclusive privilege. It would only put American. vessels to the trouble, perhaps with some trifle of additional

expense, to clear out for intermediate ports. The act of Parliament has removed all question in this respect. There had been also a refusal to clear an American vessel for Batavia, although that colony had been receded by treaty to the Dutch. Upon my application to Mr. Robinson an order was dispatched to the collector at Liverpool to allow their clearance.

3. Tonnage duties, Ramsgate harbor dues, etc.

There were various charges of this nature levied upon American vessels beyond those to which British vessels were subjected. Upon a representation of it to me by Captain Aspinwall, I immediately addressed a note to Lord Castlereagh. I was informed that these duties being granted to chartered companies could not be repealed, but that the amount of them should be refunded by the officers of the customs, as was practised in the case of Portuguese vessels. Copies of my note to Lord Castlereagh on this subject, of his answer, and of the order from the Lords of the Treasury for the repayment of the extra duties, are among the present enclosures.

After the close of the session of Parliament I received a letter from an American house at Liverpool, complaining that a duty of five per cent upon the sale at auction of merchandise imported in American vessels was exacted, to which goods imported in British vessels were not liable when sold in the same manner. I spoke of it to Lord Castlereagh, who assured me that orders should immediately be given to cease requiring this duty. He said something at the same time of a distinction made in the new tariff of duties in the United States between rolled and hammered iron-the same manufacture being effected in this country by the process of rolling which in Sweden is done by hammering. This difference of duty he thought operated to the disadvantage of

the British iron and as a preference to the Swedish, and he expressed the hope and professed the disposition that the fullest operation might be given on both sides to the equalizing principle of the convention.

With the act of Parliament empowering the secretaries of state to authorize the exportation of machinery for the use of the mint of the United States, I enclose copies of my note to Lord Castlereagh asking for such a permission and of his answer. Never having seen a copy of the bill while it was before Parliament, I had not the opportunity of suggesting a correction of the mistake in the preamble, which states that the machinery is wanted to erect and establish a mint in the United States. It will, however, of course have no effect upon the execution of the law. The power conferred upon the executive government you will perceive is more extensive than was requested, and may be used to obtain licenses for the conveyance of artificers, if they should be wanted, as well as of machinery. I have received two letters from Messrs. Belles and Harold of Birmingham, mentioning orders to them from Mr. Patterson, the Director of the Mint, for six pair of rollers to be sent to Philadelphia, and that they would be about this time ready for exportation from Liverpool.

I have the honor, etc.