your endeavours to give to this appeal all the effect possible with the British government. General Armstrong will be doing the same with that of France. The relation in which a revocation of its unjust decrees by either, will place the United States to the other, is obvious; and ought to be a motive to the measure, proportioned to the desire which has been manifested by each to produce collision between the United States and its adversary, and which must be equally felt by each to avoid one with itself.

Should the French government revoke so much of its decrees as violate our neutral rights, or give explanations and assurances having the like effect, and entitling it therefore to a removal of the embargo as it applies to France, it will be impossible to view a perseverance of Great Britain in her retaliating orders, in any other light than that of war, without even the pretext now assumed by her.

In order to entitle the British government to a discontinuance of the embargo, as it applies to Great Britain, it is evident that all its decrees, as well those of January, 1807, as of November, 1807, ought to be rescinded, as they apply to the United States; and this is the rather to be looked for from the present administration, as it has so strenuously contended that the decrees of both dates were founded on the same principles, and directed to the same object.

Should the British government take this course, you may authorize an expectation that the President will, within a reasonable time, give effect to the authority vested in him on the subject of the embargo laws.

Should the orders be rescinded in part only, it must be left to his free judgment to decide on the case. In either event, you will lose, no time in transmitting the information to this department and to general Armstrong; and particularly in the event of such a course being taken by the British government, as will render a suspension of the embargo certain or probable, it will be proper for you to make the communication by a courier to general Armstrong, to whom a correspondent instruction will be given, and to provide a special conveyance for it hither, unless British arrangement shall present an opportunity equally certain and expeditious."

Extract of Letter from Mr. Madison to Mr. Pinkney. Department of State, July 18, 1808.

"YOUR Communications by lieutenant Lewis were safely delivered on the evening of the 8th inst.

:

As it had been calculated that the interval between the return of Mr. Rose, and the departure of lieutenant Lewis, would give sufficient time to the British government to decide on the course required by the posture in which the affair of the Chesapeake was left, its silence to you on that subject could not fail to excite the particular attention of the President and the appearance is rendered the more unfavourable by the like silence, as we learn from Mr. Erskine, of the despatches brought to him by the packet which left England and arrived at New York at nearly the same time with the Osage. I have intimated to Mr. Erskine the impressions made by this reserve, without, however, concealing our hope that the delay does not imply a final purpose of withholding reparation, and that the next communications from London will be of a different import. They must at least ascertain the real views of the British government on this interesting subject."

"There was certainly no just ground for Mr. Canning to expect any particular communications from you on the arrival of the Osage, unless they should have grown out of such accounts from France as would second our demands of justice from Great Britain, particularly the revocation of her orders in council: and in imparting to him what you did from that quarter, every proof of candour was given which the occasion admitted.

If Mr. Canning was disappointed, because he did not receive fresh complaints against the orders in council, he ought to have recollected, that you had sufficiently dwelt on their offensive features, in the first instance; and that as he had chosen to make the formal communication of them to this government through another channel, it was <through that channel, rather than through you, that answers to it would be most regularly given."

"The communications and instructions forwarded by Mr. Purviance, who was a passenger in the St. Michael, will enable you to bring the British government to a fair issue on the subject of its orders. If it has nothing more

in view than it is willing to avow, it cannot refuse to concur in an arrangement, rescinding, on her part, the orders in council; and on ours, the embargo. If France should concur in a like arrangement, the state of things will be restored, which is the alleged object of the orders. If France does not concur, the orders will be better enforced by the continuance of the embargo against her, than they are by the British fleets and cruisers, and in the mean time, all the benefits of our trade will be thrown into the lap of Great Britain. It will be difficult, therefore, to conceive any motive in Great Britain to reject the offer which you will have made, other than the hope of inducing, on the part of France, a perseverance in her irritating policy towards the United States, and, on the part of the latter, hostile resentments against it.

If the British government should have elected the more wise and more worthy course, of meeting the overture of the President, in the spirit which dictated it, it is to be hoped, that measures will have been taken in concert with you, and through its minister here, for hastening, as much as possible, the renewal of the intercourse, which the orders and the embargo have suspended; and thereby smoothing the way for other salutary adjustments.

It appears that the British government, not satisfied with the general blockade, by her orders of November 11th, has superadded a particular blockade, or rather a diplomatic notification of an intended one, of Copenhagen, and the other ports in the island of Zealand; that is to say, a strict and legal blockade of the whole island. The island cannot be much less than two hundred miles in its outline, and is described as abounding in inlets. It is not probable, therefore, if it be possible, that the blockade, within the true definition, should be carried into effect. And as all defective blockades, whether so in the disproportion of force to the object, or in the mode of notification, will authorize fair claims of indemnification, it is the more necessary that guarded answers should be given, in such cases, as heretofore suggested.

Since the British order of evidently inviting our citizens to violate the laws of their country, by patronising on the high seas their vessels destitute of registers, and other necessary papers, and therefore necessarily smugglers, if not pirates, the circular letter of Mr. Huskisson

has made its appearance; in which the United States are named as alone within the purview of the order. A more extraordinary experiment is perhaps not to be found in the annals of modern transactions. It is levelled, moreover, against a nation towards which friendship is professed, as well as against a law, the justice and validity of which are not contested; and it sets the odious example, in the face of the world, directly in opposition to all the principles which the British government has been proclaiming to it. What becomes of the charge against the United States for receiving British subjects who leave their own country contrary to their allegiance? What would be the charge against them, if they were, by proclamation, to invite British subjects, those too expressly and particularly prohibited from leaving their country, to elude the prohibition; or to tempt, by interested inducements, a smuggling violation or evasion of laws on which Great Britain founds so material a part of her national policy? In the midst of so many more important topicks of dissatisfaction, this may not be worth a formal representation. But it will not be amiss to let that government understand the light in which the proceeding is regarded by this. I have already touched on it to Mr. Erskine, with an intimation that I should not omit it in my observations to you."

"The French decree, said to have been issued at Bayonne, has not yet reached this country. Such a decree, at such a time has a serious aspect on the relations of the two countries, and will form a heavy item in our demands of redress. It is much to be regretted, at the same time, that any of our vessels, by neglecting to return home, and conforming to the arbitrary regulations of one belligerent, should expose themselves to the arbitrary proceedings of another. So strong and general an indignation seems particularly to prevail here against the Americans in Europe, who are trading under British licences, and thereby sacrificing, as far as they can, the independence of their country, as well as frustrating the laws which were intended to guard American vessels and mariners from the dangers incident to foreign commerce, that their continuance in that career ought to be frowned upon, and their return home promoted in every proper manner. It appears by information from our consul at Tangier, that great numbers of our vessels are engaged in a trade between

Great Britain and Spanish ports, under licenses from the former, and that the experiment proves as unsuccessful as it is dishonourable; the greater part of them being either arrested in port, or by French and Spanish cruisers."

Mr. Pinkney to Mr. Madison. London, Feb. 23, 1808.

SIR, Mr. Canning has just sent me a note, of which a copy is enclosed, relative to an intended alteration, upon the subject of cotton, in their bill for carrying into execution the late orders in council. You will perceive, that he lays some stress upon the accidental observations, which (as already explained to you in my letter of the 26th of last month) were drawn from me, some time since, upon the singularly offensive project of imposing a transit duty upon our cotton. I mentioned to you in my letter of the 2d inst. that he appeared to have misapprehended the tendency of these observations, and that, in a subsequent conversation, he showed a disposition to remove this obnoxious feature from their plan, for the purpose of substituting an absolute interdict of the export of that article, under an idea that we should then cease to object to it: but that I thought it my duty to decline to give him any encouragement to do so, although I agreed, as he seemed to wish it, to mention his disposition to you. A few days ago, he sent for me again, and renewed his proposal, of an immediate change, with respect to cotton, from a prohibitory duty, to a direct prohibition. My answer was the same in substance as it had been before. He then suggested the alternative arrangement, which you will see stated in this note; but, adhering to the determination I had formed, upon the first appearance of the orders in council,to make no compromise (without precise directions from my government) with the system which they announce, by becoming a party to its details, I received this proposal as I had done the other.

The British government, however, had resolved to adopt this last mentioned plan, whether it received my concurrence or not, upon a presumption, that it would be more acceptable to us, and, perhaps, too, under the idea, that it was more defensible than their original scheme; and the purpose of Mr. Canning's note is merely to signify to me,