"ART. 2. The high contracting parties engage to deliver each to the other, within eighteen months from the ratification of the present convention, a list, as far as it may be found practicable to obtain it, containing the names and description of the seamen, falling within the said exception, specifying the places of their birth and the date of their becoming naturalized. And it is further agreed, that no person, whose name shall not be included in the said lists, shall be deemed to fall within the said exceptions.

"ART. 3. It is, however, agreed, that if one of the high contracting parties shall, at any time during the continuance of this convention, think fit to notify to the other, that it does not insist upon the exclusion of its natural born subjects, or natural born citizens, from the public or private marine of the other party, it shall be competent to the said other party, notwithstanding the engagement set forth in the first article of this convention, no longer to exclude the said subjects or citizens. Provided always, that whenever the power, which has made the said notification, shall recall the same, its recall shall be immediately communicated to the other contracting party, and on receipt of such communication, the power, receiving the same, shall, forthwith, make it known in the most public and official manner, and shall use its utmost endeavours to restrain the said subjects or citizens of the other party from further serving in its public or private marine, and shall obtain the exclusion of such of the said subjects or citizens of the other power, as may then be in its service, as if no such stipulations, as are contained in the preceding part of this article, had been agreed to.

"ART. 4. It is agreed by the high contracting parties, that, during the continuance of the present convention, neither power shall impress or forcibly withdraw, or cause to be impressed or forcibly withdrawn, any person or persons from the vessels of the other party, when met upon the high seas, or upon the narrow seas, on any plea, or pretext whatsoever. Provided always, that nothing contained in this article, shall be construed to impair or effect the rights of either power to impress or forcibly withdraw, or cause to be impressed or forcibly withdrawn, its natural born subjects, or natural born citizens, not falling within the exceptions, mentioned in the preceding articles, from any vessel, being within its ports, or within its ordinary maritime jurisdiction, as acknowledged by the law of nations: And also provided, that nothing, herein con11

VOL. II.

tained, shall be construed to impair or affect the established right of search, as authorized in time of war by the laws of nations.

"ART. 5. The high contracting parties have agreed to extend the duration of the present treaty to ten years, and they reserve to themselves to concert, as to its renewal, at such convenient period, previous to its expiration, as may ensure to their respective subjects or citizens, as aforesaid, the uninterrupted benefit, which they expect from its provisions. Provided always, that either power may, if it deem it expedient, upon giving six months previous notice to the other, wholly abrogate and annul the present treaty.

"ART. 6. It is agreed that nothing, contained in the preceding articles, shall be understood to impair or affect the rights and principles on which the high contracting parties have, heretofore, acted in respect to any of the matters to which these stipulations refer, except so far as the same shall be modified, restrained or suspended by the said articles."

The article was brought forward and inserted on the ninth protocol amended by the British commissioners in a manner, partly to remove the objections of the American, in regard to the difficulty of procuring lists of naturalized seamen.* It was not, however, accepted in that shape. In this project the British government suspended their right, for a specified term of six months, to visit and search vessels for their seamen, either upon the high or narrow seas;—in other words, England agreed to renounce its practice of impressment during peace, and on the breaking out of a maritime war, when crews would be again wanted, it could not be resumed, without notifying the fact to the foreign government six months previous. The life of the whole instrument hung upon this single provision.

"But even if the intention was, that this right of dissolving the compact by a notice of six months should apply only to the article against impressment, its acceptance is objectionable on other grounds. The engagement to exclude all British seamen from our

*This stipulation was originally accepted by the American commissioners at the fourth conference, but rejected on deliberation.

sea service will operate immediately from its commencement, with some inconvenience to our merchants. Since the peace and the dispersion of the vast number of seamen, disbanded from the British navy, there are, no doubt, considerable numbers of them, who have found employment on board our vessels, and their exclusion' from them will not be accomplished without some inconvenience. The effect of the stipulation of Great Britain to take no men from our vessels is remote, and contingent upon the event of her being engaged in a maritime war with other powers. The onerous part of the engagement is, therefore, to us immediate and certain, the benefit to be derived from it, distant and eventual. If to this apparent inequality should be added a power, reserved by Great Britain, to cancel the bargain by a simple notice of six months, we could scarcely consider it as a contract. It would be a positive concession and sacrifice on our part, for the mere chance of a future equivalent for it, altogether dependent upon the will of the other party."

We are not disposed to deny, that this article does not wear on its face a liberal, enticing expression; it is an uncommon departure from the principles and language, heretofore asserted and held by England, and a very near approach to the proposition of this government on a topic, on which it might well be supposed, the United States would be willing to concede many details, for the sake of avoiding the dangerous collisions, to which the practice of impressment has exposed them. We believe, however, that upon a full consideration of all the provisions, the project embraces only nominal advantages, and that, in fact, Great Britain abandoned the pretension during a period, when she had no inducements to exercise it. The claim to enter our vessels in search of men was not renounced, though the proposition, made by this government, was a great sacrifice on its part ;to forego the employment of all foreign seamen and even to exclude all British born subjects. The latter clause of the stipulation would be less mischievous to our navigation, because the greater portion of foreign seamen in the merchant service of this country, probably, come from the shores of the Baltic and the north sea. It would be an evil to deprive

ourselves of this class of men, as well as foreign workmen in many branches of business. The supply of labour is not yet equal to the demand and cannot well be for many years, though the deficiency in regard to seamen is more especially perceived of late. This is, partly, occasioned by the creation of more employment at home by the establishment of manufactories in those parts of the country, that furnished the supply, and by the opportunity, the peace affords to the European nations, to carry on their own fisheries as well as trade.

The whole operation of the law of March 1813, for the regulation of seamen on board the public and private vessels of the United States, would have been to the disadvantage of this country; for the simple, plain reason that wages are higher here. By that act we agreed to exclude from our service, navy and merchant, at the peace with Great Britain, all seamen not naturalized, (accompanied with a circumstance, respecting the proof of naturalization, somewhat difficult for that class of persons often to comply with) belonging to those countries, whose governments should adopt a similar regulation in regard to our citizens. But, whether other governments paid any attention or not to this proposition, the rate of wages is the only law required to exclude every American from their vessels. England has always known she could not, in time of peace, prevent her subjects from entering into our service. Submitting, therefore, to this evil and necessity, she refuses to trust to the ordinances of a foreign government to restore her seamen, when the urgencies of war compel her again to send forth her thousand sail of armed vessels. She retains the application of this claim within her own hands;-the execution of her municipal regulations within the jurisdiction of a foreign state, as a terror and beacon of warning to her own subjects. The whole difficulty, by no means, rests in the system of naturalization, in the principle of allegiance, that prevails in this country, adopted, with a modification of details, from the usages of Europe, but in the full, direct, distinct right England claims to enter with her officers our ships and search for

her subjects. We confess it appears to us, that very little satisfaction for either party would attend any arrangement, which did not fully and formally provide for the entire, absolute abandonment of the pretension. The failure of this attempt brings to a close all negotiation on the subject of impressment. In placing upon record this last sincere and earnest endeavour to settle 66 a great and formidable controversy," we may the more deeply lament the ill success, that has attended it, as it was made in a season of profound peace, when the relations as well as dispositions of the two people were of a friendly character.

In our different negotiations with England we have no recollection of having met with a stipulation upon any topic, arranged with more skill, or with more nicely adjusted parts and proportions than the one, recited on a preceding page, in regard to impressment. Projects, respecting other maritime rights, were inserted by the English commission on the same protocol, and though not introduced into the convention, we shall give them below in a note to illustrate the temper, views and disposition of the British government at this period. In future discussions, it may be important to refer to the doctrines, entertained in 1818, on those momentous subjects.*

"ART. (a). Whenever one of the high contracting parties shall be at war, any vessel of the other party, sailing for a port or place belonging to an enemy of the party at war, without knowing that the same is blockaded, may be turned away from such port or place, but she shall not be detained on account of such blockade, unless, after such notice, she shall again attempt to enter. And in order to determine what characterises a blockade, it is agreed, that that denomination shall apply only to a port, where there is, by the disposition of the power, which blockades it with a naval force, stationary or sufficiently near, an evident danger in entering.

“ART. (b). In order to regulate, what is, in future, to be deemed contraband of war, it is agreed, that, under the same denomination, shall be comprised all arms and implements, serving for the purposes of war by land or by sea, such as cannon, mortars, &c. and generally all other implements of war, as also timber for ship building, tar or rosin, copper in sheets, sails, hemp and cordage, and generally what