analogous in principle to the regulations in the commercial code of G. Britain, is made a cause of capture on the high seas, and of condemnation in her maritime courts. In the other Order, the sale of a merchant ship by a belligerent owner to a neutral, although a transaction as legal, when fair, as a dealing in any other article, is condemned by a general rule, without an atom of proof or of presumption that the transfer in the particular case is fraudulent, and the property therefore left in an enemy. In fine, sir, the President sees in the Edicts communicated by you, facts assumed which did not exist, principles asserted which never can be admitted, and, under the name of retaliation, measures transcending the limits reconcileable with facts and the principles, if both were as correct as they are unfounded. He sees, moreover, in the modification of this system, regulations violating equally our neutral rights and our national sovereignty. He persuades himself therefore that your government will see, in the justness of the observations now made, in addition to what I had the honour verbally to state to you in the first instance, that the U. States are well warranted in looking for a speedy revocation of a system which is every day augmenting the mass of injury, for which the United States have the best claims to redress. I have the honour to be, &c. (Signed) JAMES MADDISON. No. V.-Circular Note from Mr. Canning to Mr. Pinkney, announcing the Blockade of the Port of Copenhagen, and Ports of the Island of Zealand; dated May 4th, 1508. Mr. Secretary Canning has the honour to inform Mr. Pinkney, that his majesty has judged it expedient to establish the most rigorous Blockade of the port of Copenhagen, and of all the other ports in the Island of Zealand. Mr. Pinkney is therefore requested to apprize the American consuls and merchants residing in England, that the entrances of all the ports above-mentioned are and must be considered as being in a state of Blockade ; and that from this time all the measures, authorized by the Law of Nations, and the respective Treaties between his majesty and the different neutral powers, will be adopted and executed with respect to all vessels attempting to violate the said Blockade after this notice. Mr. Secretary Canning requests, &c. Secretary Canning; dated Great Cumberland Place, August 23d, 180s. Sir; I have had the honour, in consequence of the orders of the President, to recall your attention, in the course of several recent interviews, to the British Orders in Council of the 7th of January and 11th of Nov. 1807, and to the various other Orders founded upon or in execution of them; and I now take the liberty to renew, in the mode which I have understood to be indispensable, my instances on that subject. I need scarcely remind you, sir, that the government of the U. States has never ceased to consider these Orders as violating its rights, and affecting most destructively its best interests, upon grounds wholly inadmissible both in principle and fact. The Letters of Mr. Madison to Mr. Erskine, of the 20th and 29th of March 1807, produced by the official communication of that minister of the Order of the 7th of Jan. and the Answer of Mr. Madison of the 25th of March 1808, to a like communication of the Orders of the 11th of November, contained the most direct remonstrances against the system which these Orders introduce and execute, and expressed the confident expectations of the President that it would not be persisted in. That expectation has not yet been fulfilled; but it has, notwithstanding, not been relinquished. The President is still persuaded that its accomplishment will result from a careful review by his majesty's government, made in the spirit of moderation and equity, of the facts and considerations which belong to the occasion. It is not my purpose to recapitulate in that Note the statements and reasonings contained in the above-mentioned Letters of Mr. Madison, in support of the claim of the government of the United States, that the British Orders be revoked: I content myself with referring to those Letters for proofs, which it is not necessary to repeat, and for arguments, which I could not hope to improve.-But there are explanations which those Letters do not contain; and which it is not proper for me now to make. Even these, however, may be very briefly given, since you our late conversations, with all their have already been made acquainted, in bearings and details.—These explanations go to shew, that while every motive of justice conspires to produce a disposition to recall the Orders of which my government complains, it is become apparent, No. VI.-Letter from Mr. Pinkney to Mr. that even their professed object will be with the honour of both, but to prepare the way for a satisfactory adjustment of every question important to their future friendship.-I have the honour to be, &c. (Signed) W. PINKNEY. No. VII.-Mr. Secretary Canning's Note to Mr. Pinkney, of the 23rd September 1808. best attained by their revocation.-I had the honour to state to you, sir, that it was the intention of the President, in case Great Britain repealed her Orders, as regarded the United States, to exercise the power vested in him by the Act of the last session of Congress, intitled, " an Act to authorize the President of the United The undersigned, his majesty's princiStates, under certain conditions, to suspend pal secretary of state for foreign affairs, the operations of the Act laying an Em- had the honour to receive the official Letter bargo on all ships and vessels in the ports addressed to him by Mr. Pinkney, minisand harbours of the United States, and ter plenipotentiary of the U. States, rethe several supplementary acts thereto," specting the Orders in Council issued by by suspending the Embargo law and its his majesty on the 7th Jan. and 11th Nov. supplements as regards Great Britain.- 1807.-He has laid that Letter before the I am authorized to give you this assurance king; and he is commanded to assure Mr. in the most formal manner; and I trust Pinkney, that the answer to the proposal that, upon impartial enquiry, it will be which Mr. Pinkney was instructed to bring found to leave no inducement to perseve- forward has been deferred only in the hope rance in the British Orders, while it creates that the renewed application, which was the most powerful inducements of equity understood to have been recently made by and policy to abandon them.-On the the government of the U. States to that score of justice, it does not seem possible of France, might, in the new state of things to mistake the footing upon which this which has arisen in Europe, have met overture places the subject; and I venture with such reception in France as would to believe that in any other view, there have rendered the compliance of his mais as little room for doubt.-If, as I purpose, jesty with that proposal consistent as much your Orders should be rescinded as to the with his majesty's own dignity, and with United States, and our Embargo rescinded the interests of his people, as it would as to Great Britain, the effect of these con- have been with his majesty's disposition current acts, will be, that the commercial towards the U. States.-Unhappily there intercourse of the two countries will be is now no longer any reason to believe immediately resumed; while, if France that such a hope is likely to be realized; should adhere to maxims and conduct de- and the undersigned is therefore commandrogatory to the neutral rights of the Uni-ed to communicate to Mr. Pinkney the ted States, the Embargo, continuing as to her, will take the place of your Orders, and lead with an efficacy not merely equal to theirs, but probably much greater, to all the consequences that ought to result from them. On the other hand, if France should concur in respecting those rights, and commerce should thus regain its fair immunities, and the law of nations its just dominion, all the alledged purposes of the British Orders will have been at once fulfilled. If I forbear to pursue these ideas through all the illustrations of which they are susceptible, it is because the personal conferences to which I have before alluded," as well as the obvious nature of the ideas themselves, render it unnecessary.—I cannot conclude this Note without expressing my sincere wish, that what I have now suggested, in conformity with the liberal sentiments and enlightened views of the Pesident, may contribute not only to remove the more immediate obstacles to the ordinary intercourse of trade between your country and mine, in a manner consistent VOL. XII. decision which, under the circumstances as they stand, his majesty feels himself compelled, however unwillingly, to adopt.The mitigated measure of retaliation, announced by his majesty in the Order in Council of the 7th of Jan., and the further extension of that measure, (an extension in operation but not in principle,) by the Orders in Council of November, were founded (as has been already repeatedly avowed by his majesty) on the "unques"tionable right of his majesty to retort upon "the enemy the evils of his own injustice," and upon the consideration, that "if third parties incidentally suffered by these retaliatory measures, they were to seek "their redress from the power by whose original aggression that retaliation was "occasioned."-His majesty sees nothing in the Embargo, laid on by the President of the U. States of America, which varies this original and simple state of the question.-If considered as a measure of impartial hostility against both belligerents, the Embargo appears to his majesty to have been manifestly unjust-as, according to every principle of justice, that redress. ought to have been first sought from the party originating the wrong; and his majesty cannot consent to buy off that hostility which America ought not to have extended to him, at the expence of a concession made, not to America, but to France.-If, as it has more generally been represented by the government of the U. States, the Embargo is only to be considered as an innocent municipal regulation, which affects none but the U. States themselves, and with which no foreign state has any concern; viewed in this light, his majesty does not conceive that he has the right, or the pretension, to make any complaint of it; and he has made none. But in this light there appears not only no reciprocity, but no assignable relation between the repeal, by the U. States, of a measure of voluntary self-restriction, and the surrender by his majesty of his right of retaliation against his enemics.-The government of the U. States is not now to be informed, that the Berlin Decree of Nov. 21st, 1806, was the practical commencement of an attempt, not merely to check or impair the prosperity of G. Britain, but utterly to annihilate her political existence, through the ruin of her commercial prosperity; that, in this attempt, almost all the powers of the European continent have been compelled more or less to co-operate; and that the American Embargo, though most assuredly not intended to that end, (for America can have no real interest in the subversion of the British power, and her rulers are too enlightened to act, from any impulse, against the real interests of their country,) but by some unfortunate concurrence of circumstances, without any hostile intention, the American Embargo did come in aid of "the blockade of the European continent," precisely at the very moment when, if that blockade could have succeeded at all, this interposition of the American government would most effectually have contributed to its success. To this universal combination, his majesty has opposed a temperate, but a determined retaliation upon the enemy; trusting that a firm resistance would defeat this project, but knowing that the smallest concession would infallibly encourage a perseverance in it. The struggle has been viewed by other powers, not without an apprehension that it might be fatal to this country. The British government has not disguised from itself, that the trial of such an experiment might be arduous and long, though it has never doubted of the final issue. But if that issue, such as the British government confidently anticipated, has providentially arrived much sooner than could even have been hoped; if the blockade of the continent, as it has been triumphantly styled by the enemy, is raised even before it had been well established; and if that system, of which extent and continuity were the vital principles, is broken up into fragments utterly harmless and contemptible, it is nevertheless important, in the highest degree, to the reputation of this country, (a reputation which constitutes a great part of her power,) that this disappointment of the hopes of her enemies should not have been purchased by any concession; that not a doubt should remain to distant times of her determination, and of her ability, to have continued her resistance; and that no step which could even mistakenly be construed into concession, should be taken on her part, while the smallest link of the confederacy remains undissolved, or while it can be a question whether the plan devised for her destruction has or has not either completely failed, or been unequivocally abandoned. These considerations compel his majesty to adhere to the principles on which the Orders in Council of the 7th Jan. and the 11th of Nov. are founded, so long as France adheres to that system by which his majesty's retaliatory measures were occasioned and justified.—It is not improbable indeed that some alterations may be made in the Orders in Council, as they are at present framed; alterations calculated not to abate their spirit or impair their principle, but to adapt them more exactly to the different state of things which has fortunately grown up in Europe, and to combine all practicable relief to neutrals with a more severe pressure upon the enemy. But of alterations to be made with this view only, it would be uncandid to take any advantage in the present discussion; however it might be hoped, that, in their practical effect, they might prove beneficial to America, provided the operation of the Embargo were not to prevent her from reaping that benefit.-It remains for the undersigned to take notice of the last paragraph of Mr. Pinkney's Letter. There cannot exist, on the part of Mr. Pinkney, a stronger wish than there does on that of the undersigned, and of the terial defect in the overture of the Presi- [THANKS OF THE HOUSE GIVEN To BrigaDIER-GENERAL FANE.] Brigadier-General Henry Fane being come to the house, the Speaker acquainted him, that the house had, upon Wednesday last, resolved, That the Thanks of this House be given to him, for his skilful and gallant exertions against the enemy in the battles of Roleia and Vimiera, by which he reflected so much lustre on his majesty's arms; and the Speaker gave him the Thanks of the house accordingly, as followeth : British government, for the adjustment of all the differences subsisting between the two countries. His majesty has no other disposition than to cultivate the most friendly intercourse with the U. States. The undersigned is persuaded that Mr. Pinkney would be one of the last to imagine, what is often idly asserted, that the depression of any other country is necessary or serviceable to the prosperity of this. The prosperity of America is essentially the prosperity of G. Britain; and the strength and power of G. Britain are not for herself only, but for the world. When those adjustments shall take place, to which, though unfortunately not practicable at this moment, nor under the conditions prescribed by Mr. Pinkney, the undersigned nevertheless confidently looks forward, it will perhaps be no insecure pledge for the continuance of the good understanding between the two countries, that they will have learnt duly to appreciate each others friendship; and that it will not hereafter be imputed to G. Britain, either, on the one hand, that she envies American industry as prejudicial to British commerce, or, on the other hand, that she is compelled to "Brig. Gen. Fane; Upon the late Expecourt an intercourse with America as dition to Portugal, it was your fortune to absolutely necessary to her own existence. hold a distinguished command in the British -His majesty would not hesitate to con- army which repeatedly gave battle to the tribute, in any manner in his power, to re- forces of France. The event of such conflicts store to the commerce of the U. States its could not be doubtful; British valour and wonted activity; and if it were possible discipline triumphed; and those who comto make any sacrifice for the repeal of the manded and directed their exertions were Embargo, without appearing to deprecate covered with glory.-Whenever the battles it as a measure of hostility, he would of Roleia and Vimiera shall be named (and gladly have facilitated its removal as a they will be long and often named with measure of inconvenient restriction upon exultation), your heart may glow with the the American people.-The undersigned conscious and honourable pride, that your is commanded in conclusion to observe, sword upon those days was not drawn in that nothing is said in Mr. Pinkney's Let- vain; and although that gallant and acter of any intention to repeal the Pro- complished officer, who, placed by your clamation, by which the ships of war of side, jointly with you, sustained the brunt G. Britain are interdicted from all those of the day at Vimiera, has since been unright of hospitality in the ports of the U. happily swept away by the course of States, which are freely allowed to the human events beyond the reach of our ships of his majesty's enemies.-The con- Thanks, his brave brethren in arms may tinuance of an interdiction which, under rest assured, that the name of general Ansuch circumstances, amounts so nearly to struther will live, not unhonoured, in the direct hostility, after the willingness pro- sad and grateful remembrance of his counfessed and the attempt made by his ma-try.-But, sir, in what concerns your exjesty to remove the cause on which that ploits in Portugal, my present duty stops measure had been originally founded, here; and I am, in the first place, to dewould afford but an inauspicious omen for liver to you the Thanks of this House, in the commencement of a system of mutual the name of the Commons of this United conciliation; and the omission of any no-Kingdom, for your skilful and gallant extice of that measure, in the proposal which ertions against the enemy in the battles of Mr. Pinkney has been instructed to bring Roleia and Vimiera, by which you reflect. forward, would have been of itself a ma-ed so much lustre on his majesty's arms.” . am were wanting, to use every exertion in our power to add fresh lustre to his majesty's arms, whenever an opportunity offers. Permit me, sir, also to offer you my thanks for the handsome and flattering manner in which you have been pleased to convey to me the sentiments of the House." Upon which Brigadier-General Fane | tude, and will be an incitement to us, if any said, "Mr. Speaker; Although I unable to express, in adequate language, the very high sense I entertain of the honour conferred upon me, upon the present occasion, yet I trust the house will do me the justice to believe that I feel it as I ought. To you, sir, I have to offer my warmest thanks for the very flattering manner in which you have communicated the Vote of the House." [THANKS OF THE HOUSE GIVEN TO LIEUT. GEN. FRASER AND BRIGADIER - GENERAL FANE.] Lieut. Gen. Alexander Mackenzie Fraser being also come to the house, and Brig. Gen. Henry Fane being present, the Speaker acquainted them, that the house had, upon Wednesday last, resolved, That the Thanks of this House be given to them for their distinguished conduct and exemplary valour displayed in the Battle of Corunna, whereby the complete repulse and signal defeat of the enemy, on every point of attack, was effected, and the safe and unmolested embarkation of the army secured in the presence of a French army of superior force; and the Speaker gave them the Thanks of the House accordingly, as followeth ; [THANKS OF THE HOUSE GIVEN TO REARADMIRAL SIR SAMUEL HOOD.] Rear Admiral Sir Samuel Hood being come to the House, the Speaker acquainted him, that the House, had, upon Wednesday last, resolved, That the Thanks of this House be given to him for his most effectual and able disposition of the ships and transports, and for his effectual exertions in accomplishing the embarkation of his majesty's troops at Corunna on the late memorable occasion; and the Speaker gave him the Thanks of the House accordingly, as followeth; "Rear Admiral sir Samuel Hood; The various and brilliant services which have marked the splendid career of your naval glory have long since made you known to the recorded gratitude of parliament; and the memorable and difficult service which you have recently contributed to accom→ "Lieut. Gen. Mackenzie Fraser, and plish at Corunna has called forth this fresh Brigadier-Gen. Fane; The deep grief tribute of its applause.-I do therefore which this nation has felt, for the loss it now, by the command, and in the name, of has experienced by the death of that il- the Commons of this United Kingdom, lustrious commander the late sir John thank you for your most able disposition Moore, in the memorable Battle of Co- of the ships and transports, and for your runna, has been mitigated in some degree, effectual exertions in accomplishing the by the reflection, that it still numbers embarkation of his majesty's troops at Coamongst its brave defenders, many gal-runna on the late memorable occasion." lant and distinguished officers, who, formed and fired by his great example, we may confidently expect, will emulate his glory. -In this honourable, list your names stand inrolled. And this House, acknowledging with gratitude your important services upon that lamented but glorious day, has commanded me to deliver you its Thanks: and I do accordingly, in the name of the Commons of this United Kingdom, thank you for your distinguished conduct and exemplary valour displayed in the Battle of Corunna, whereby the complete repulse and signal defeat of the enemy, on every point of attack, was effected, and the safe and unmolested embarkation of the army secured in the presence of a French army of superior force." Upon which Lieut. Gen. Fraser said, "Mr. Speaker; Thehigh and distinguished honour conferred upon us by the House calls for our warmest acknowledgement and grati Upon which, rear admiral sir Samuel Hood said, "Mr. Speaker; I beg leave to offer my most sincere thanks for the honour conferred on me, by the Vote of this House; it affords me peculiar satisfaction that in the performance of my duty only, my services have met the approbation of the representatives of my countrymen, which I shall always endeavour to merit. For the very handsome manner, sir, you have been pleased to communicate this to me, I request you to accept my warmest acknowledgements." [CONDUCT OF THE DUKE OF YORK.] On the motion of Mr. Wardle, the house resolved itself into a committee, to inquire into the Conduct of his royal highness the Duke of York, touching the disposal of commissions in the army, &c. Mr. R. Wharton in the Chair. Mr. Wardle, in proceeding to the investigation he proposed, felt it necessary |