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BOOK XI. agent, yet if you could contrive to obtain an intimacy with any of the leading party, it may not be CHAP. II. improper that you should insinuate, though with great caution, that if they should wish to enter into any communication with our government through me, you are authorised to receive any such, and will safely transmit it to me."

1812.

No. 6. contained Mr. Henry's memorial to Lord Liverpool, enclosed in a letter to Mr. Peel, dated June 13, 1811:-In this memorial he alluded to the object of his mission, which

"Was to promote and encourage the federal party to resist the measures of the general government: to offer assurances of aid and support from his majesty's government of Canada: and to open a communication between the leading men engaged in that opposition and the governor-general, upon such a footing as circumstances might suggest; and, finally, to render the plans then in contemplation subservient to the views of his majesty's government.

"The undersigned undertook the mission which lasted from the month of January to the month of June inclusive, during which period those public acts and legislative resolutions of the assemblies of Massachusetts and Connecticut were passed, which kept the general government of the United States in check, and deterred it from carrying into execution the measures of hostility with which Great Britain was menaced."

The memorial concluded with saying, that "the appointment of judge-advocate-general of the province of Lower Canada, with a salary of 5001. a-year, or a consulate in the United States, sine curia, would be considered by him as a liberal discharge of any obligation that his majesty's government may entertain in relation to his services."

Then followed some letters from Mr. Ryland, secretary to Sir James Craig, to Mr. Henry, dated Quebec, May, 1809, requesting him to return to Quebec, Mr. Erskine's arrangement having rendered his mission no longer necessary.

Several petitions from Birmingham having been presented to the house of commons, against the orders in council, a committee of the whole house was appointed to take them into consideration. The evidence was printed, of which the following is the substance.

Mr. Thomas Attwood, High-bailiff of Birmingbam, was first examined. He stated," I am a banker in Birmingham, and connected with the iron trade. The population of Birmingham and the neighbouring manufacturing districts amounts to 400,000, of whom 50,000, at least, are employed in manufacturing iron, besides those who work in brass-founderies, buttons, jewellery, &c. With in these two years, trade has been in a deplorable state. Labourers, who twelve months ago could obtain twenty shillings a week, get now only ten

or twelve shillings, and a great number of workmen are dismissed. Every manufacturer is overloaded with stock, and he cannot sell it at what it cost him. The principal trade of Birmingham is to America, but for the last twelve months there have been no exports to America. The value of the annual exports to America 800,000. or 1,000,000l. During the last twelve months there has been a trifling export to Portugal, Spain, Malta, and South America, amounting to about 200,000l. or 300,000l. There has been recently at Birmingham a considerable extra employment in the manufacture of cast-iron pipes. This must have, during the last twelve months, amounted to nearly 100,0007. and had it not been for that resource, the situation of the trade must have been considerably worse. I am informed, that the Americans have erected steel furnaces, and are not likely to want any more steel from England. The manufacturers have, with great reluctance, dismissed many of their men. They have been accumulating stock for the last twelve months. They have thus exhausted the whole of their capital, partly from motives of interest, looking forward to markets opening to the trade, but principally from motives of honorable humanity. I have heard, that many orders have been received from America conditionally, on the repeal of the orders in council; but nails, and some other articles, have been omitted, on the ground of their being now manufactured in America." The witness ascribed the decay of trade chiefly to the cessation of intercourse with the United States, and though he had heard that machinery had made considerable progress in America, he was of opinion, that their manufactures could not maintain a competition with the British if the markets were open. "Some manufactures which America used to be supplied with from England, are now sent from the continent. The transmission of our manufactures through the northern colonies has failed; and British manufactured goods can now be bought in Canada at less than prime cost." The whole manufactures of Birmingham the witness estimated at about one million, and one half he supposed used to be exported to America. In answer to the question, what has been the conduct of the labouring manufacturers during the last twelve months? He answered, "the labouring mechanics of Birmingham, and I believe of the whole district, have been looking for the opening of the American intercourse, and have relied upon it, under the hope, that upon the expiration of the restrictions, the difficulties with the United States of America would be made up." If the non-intercourse act continued to be enforced, the witness was of opinion, that it would create manufactures in America to such an extent, that it would, at last, become a part of the policy of the government of the

United States to protect them, by preventing the importation of British manufactures. He believed very little of the Birmingham hardwares go to the West Indies, perhaps not above 100,000l. annually.

William Whitehouse, nail-monger, of West Bromwich, in Staffordshire, about six miles from Birmingham, stated, that the depression in trade commenced about August, 1810, and that it had been growing continually worse since that date. The nail manufactory in his district, when in a flourishing state, employed from 25 to 30,000 persons. The reduction of wages since August, 1810, has been from seven and a half to ten per cent. Since February, 1811, the witness had exported only one lot of goods to America. In the manufactory with which the witness was connected, the hands had been reduced from 1,200 pair to 500 pair. There are considerable orders in the country, to be executed immediately on the intercourse with America being opened. The witness considered the exports to South America increasing trade. About one-fourth of the nails manufactured, he supposed, are exported to North America.

T. Potts, a merchant, residing at Birmingham, being examined, stated, that he had been in business sixteen or eighteen years. Had some knowledge of the nail trade in Birmingham. The wages in this business are so low, that a man can scarcely exist. A rise had taken place, in the expectation of opening the trade with America, but that expectation had been disappointed. Men in the button and plated lines, who would formerly earn from forty to fifty shillings a week, do not now get half those wages. In the town of Birmingham there were from 20 to 25,000 labouring men out of employ. The whole town is different from what it used to be, there is a deficiency in every trade. Distresses are universal. "I think, in the course of two months, that necessity will oblige the merchants to dismiss at least two parts of their men out of three." Witness exported Birmingham manufactures to America: the export was worse than ever. Their goods cannot be shipped from Liverpool: they will not be received in the United States. The shipments began to fall off in 1808: there was no falling off in 1807. "The trade had been uniformly increasing, and we could always anticipate what would suit the market before the orders came, and that enabled us to keep the lower orders in the vicinity of the town constantly employed. The Americans were once considered bad payers, but they have improved progressively every year. Witness had done no business with America since 1811. The attempt to smuggle goods to the United States had been attended by painful results. Goods at Quebec, from Manchester and Birmingham, were cheaper than at the manufacturing towns. The

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value of the export from Birmingham, previous BOOK XI. to the distresses, was about a million: did not know whether it fell in 1809. Men had emi- CHAP. II. grated from Birmingham to America.

Joseph Shaw, chairman of the chamber of Foreign commerce of Birmingham, stated, that the hardware export trade to Europe, Turkey, and South America, had decreased since 1807. The trade to the continent had decreased since the orders in council, and was now almost at an end. James Ryland, a plater of coach-harness, &c. stated, that his business had greatly declined by the American markets being closed.

Richard Spooner, banker, of Birmingham, corroborated the preceding statements respecting the falling off of the trade, and the distresses of the workmen. The increase on their poor-rates in eight years, amounted to 4,500.

William Blakeway, a lamp maker, employed sixty pair of hands at Birmingham. He stated that the trade of his article had fallen off, and the greater part of his stock remained on his hands, the American market being shut-should be obliged to turn off his hands if confined to the home trade of this country.

Several other witnesses from Manchester, Spitalfields, &c. deposed to the same effect.

The following was the prince-regent's declaration respecting the Berlin and Milan decrees, and the orders in council, which was not founded on any document officially communicated from the French government, but on a message which Bonaparte sent to the conservative senate.

"The government of France, having by an official report, communicated by its minister for foreign affairs to the conservative senate, on the 10th day of March last, removed all doubts as to the perseverance of that government in the assertion of principles, and in the maintenance of a system, not more hostile to the maritime rights and commercial interests of the British empire, than inconsistent with the rights and independence of neutral nations; and having thereby plainly developed the inordinate pretensions which that system as promulgated in the decrees of Berlin and Milan, was from the first designed to enforce; his royal highness the prince-regent, acting in the name and on the behalf of his majesty, deems it proper, upon this formal and authentic republication of the principles of those decrees, thus publicly to declare his royal highness's determination still firmly to resist the introduction and establishment of this arbitrary code, which the government of France openly avows its purpose to impose by force upon the world as the law of nations.

"From the time that the progressive injustice and violence of the French government made it impossible for his majesty any longer to restrain the exercise of the rights of war within their ordi

1812.

BOOK XI. nary limits, without submitting to consequences not less ruinous to the commerce of his dominions, CHAP. II. than derogatory to the rights of his crown, his majesty has endeavoured, by a restricted and 1812. moderate use of those rights of retaliation, which the Berlin and Milan decrees necessarily called into action, to reconcile neutral states to those measures which the conduct of the enemy had rendered unavoidable; and which his majesty has at all times professed his readiness to revoke, so soon as the decrees of the enemy, which gave occasion to them, should be formally and unconditionally repealed, and the commerce of neutral nations be restored to its accustomed course.

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"At a subsequent period of the war, his majesty, availing himself of the then situation of Europe, without abandoning the principle and object of the orders in council of November, 1807, was induced so to limit their operation, as materially to alleviate the restrictions thereby imposed upon neutral commerce. The order in council of April, 1809, was substituted in the room of those of November, 1807, and the retaliatory system of Great Britain acted no longer on every country in which the aggressive measures of the enemy were in force, but was confined in its operation to France, and to the countries upon which the French yoke was most strictly imposed; and which had become virtually a part of the dominions of France.

"The United States of America remained nevertheless dissatisfied; and their dissatisfaction has been greatly increased by an artifice too successfully employed on the part of the enemy, who has pretended, that the decrees of Berlin and Milan were repealed, although the decree effecting such repeal has never been promulgated; although the notification of such pretended repeal distinctly described it to be dependent on conditions, in which the enemy knew Great Britain could never acquiesce; and although abundant evidence has since appeared of their subsequent

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under the flag of an enemy, shall be treated as hostile;-that arms and warlike stores alone (to the exclusion of ship timber and other articles of naval equipment) shall be regarded as contraband of war; and that no ports shall be considered as lawfully blockaded, except such as are invested and besieged, in the presumption of their being taken, (en prevention a'etre pris), and into which a merchant ship cannot enter without danger.

"By these and other demands, the enemy in fact requires, that Great Britain, and all civilized nations, shall renounce, at his arbitrary pleasure, the ordinary and indisputable rights of maritime war: that Great Britain, in particular, shall forego the advantages of her naval superiority, and allow the commercial property, as well as the produce and manufactures of France, and her confederates, to pass the ocean in security, whilst the subjects of Great Britain are to be in effect proscribed from all commercial intercourse with other nations; and the produce and manufactures of these realms are to be excluded from every country in the world, to which the arms or the influence of the enemy can extend.

"Such are the demands to which the British government is summoned to submit,-to the abandoument of its most ancient, essential, and undoubted maritime rights. Such is the code by which France hopes, under the cover of a neutral flag, to render her commerce unassailable by sea; whilst she proceeds to invade or to incorporate with her own dominions all states that hesitate to sacrifice their national interests at her command, and, in abdication of their just rights, to adopt a code, by which they are required to exclude, under the mask of municipal regulation, whatever is British from their dominions.

"The pretext for these extravagant demands is, that some of these principles were adopted by voluntary compact in the treaty of Utrecht; as if a treaty once existing between two particular countries, founded on special and reciprocal considerations, binding only on the contracting parties, and which in the last treaty of peace between the same powers had not been revived, were to be regarded as declaratory of the public law of nations.

"It is needless for his royal highness to demonstrate the injustice of such pretensions. He might otherwise appeal to the practice of France herself, in this and in former wars; and to her own established codes of maritime law: it is sufficient that these new demands of the enemy form a wide departure from those conditions on which the alleged repeal of the French decrees was accepted by America; and upon which alone, erroneously assuming that repeal to be complete, America has claimed a revocation of the British orders in council.

"His royal highness, upon a review of all

these circumstances, feels persuaded, that so soon as this formal declaration, by the government of France, of its unabated adherence to the principles and provisions of the Berlin and Milan decrees, shall be made known in America, the government of the United States, actuated not less by a sense of justice to Great Britain, than by what is due to its own dignity, will be disposed to recal those measures of hostile exclusion, which, under a misconception of the real views and conduct of the French government, America has exclusively applied to the commerce and ships of war of Great Britain.

“To accelerate a result so advantageous to the true interests of both countries, and so conducive to the re-establishment of perfect friendship between them; and to give a decisive proof of his royal highness's disposition to perform the engagements of his majesty's government, by revoking the orders in council whenever the French decrees shall be actually and unconditionally repealed; his royal highness the prince-regent has been this day pleased, in the name and on the behalf of his majesty, and by and with the advice of his majesty's privy council, to order and declare:

"That if at any time hereafter the Berlin and Milan decrees shall, by some authentic act of the French government, publicly promulgated, be expressly and unconditionally repealed; then, and from thenceforth, the order in council of the 7th day of January, 1807, and the order in council of the 26th day of April, 1809, shall, without any further order, be, and the same hereby are declared from thenceforth to be wholly and absolutely revoked; and further, that the full benefit of this order shall be extended to any ship or vessel captured subsequent to such authentic act of repeal of the French decrees, although antecedent to such repeal such ship or vessel shall have commenced, and shall be in the prosecution of a voyage, which, under the said orders in council, or one of them, would have subjected her to capture and condemnation; and the claimant of any ship or cargo which shall be captured at any time subsequent to such authentic act of repeal by the French government, shall, without any further order or declaration on the part of his majesty's government on this subject, be at liberty to give in evidence in the high court of admiralty, or any court of vice-admiralty, before which such ship or vessel, or its cargo, shall be brought for adjudication, that such repeal by the French government had been by such authentic act promulgated prior to such capture; and upon proof thereof, the voyage shall be deemed and taken to have been as lawful, as if the said orders in council had never been made; saving, nevertheless, to the captors, such protection and indemnity as they may be equitably entitled to, in the judgement of the said

court, by reason of their ignorance or uncertainty BOOK XL as to the repeal of the French decrees, or of the recognition of such repeal by his majesty's government, at the time of such capture.

"His royal highness, however, deems it proper to declare, that, should the repeal of the French decrees, thus anticipated and provided for, afterwards prove to have been illusory on the part of the enemy; and should the restrictions thereof be still practically enforced, or revived by the enemy, Great Britain will be obliged, however reluctantly, after reasonable notice to neutral powers, to have recourse to such measures of retaliation as may then appear to be just and ne

cessary.

"Westminster, April 21, 1812."

Mr. Madison's complaint of Capt. Henry's mission to the United States became a subject of consideration in the house of lords, May 5, when Lord Holland, after some preliminary observations, moved for the communications from Sir James Craig, relative to the employment of Henry in a mission to the United States, and by reading two other motions, the one for the communications from the secretary of state to Sir George Prevost, respecting the claims for compensation made by Henry, and the other for the instructions sent by the secretary of state to Sir James Craig, relative to the employment of any person on a mission to the United States.

The Earl of Liverpool said, the government here never authorised the employment of Henry, nor did they know of his being employed on the mission alluded to, till long after the transaction was past. His lordship then entered into a detail of the circumstances attending the transaction. Henry, he stated, who had for some years resided in Canada, but who was, in 1808, in the United States, had of his own accord, in that year, opened a correspondence with the government of Canada, giving information of the state of parties and other matters, which was found useful-he subsequently returned to Canada. Towards the latter end of that year the commander-in-chief at Boston issued orders to the troops to be in readiness to march at an hour's notice. Congress also, in December, voted the raising of 50,000 volunteers. There was no doubt that the object of these hostile preparations was the attack of the British North America possessions, and when Mr. Erskine, either in the last day of December, 1808, or the 1st of January, 1809, very properly required an explanation of these hostile preparations, he was informed by Mr. Madison, that from the treatment experienced from both the belligerents, the government of the United States might consider itself as justified in commencing hostilities without further notice.. Mr. Erskine, in consequence, very properly sent an express to Sir James Craig,

CHAP. II.

1812.

CHAP. II. 1812.

BOOK XI. informing him of these circumstances, and that there was no doubt of its being the intention of the American government to attack the British North American possessions; and Sir J. Craig bad actually sent an express to Sir G. Prevost, at Halifax, to suspend, in consequence, his sailing on an expedition to Martinique. It was under these circumstances of threatened hostility that Sir James Craig employed Henry. There were several interpolations in the papers as published, but he admitted the instructions of Sir J. Craig to be genuine. These instructions, however, had, he contended, been misinterpreted, the object was not to excite discontents, but to obtain information of the state of the discontents in America, with a view to the use that might be made of them in the event of hostilities, which were then expected almost immediately to commence. It was in this expectation of hostilities that the instructions were issued, and that there was no intention of applying them to a period of peace, was evident from Henry being recalled by Sir James Craig, when the arrangement with Mr. Erskine took place. He thought it right also to state, that in April, 1809, the most positive instructions were sent from this country not to employ any person in the United States on any mission

which could excite irritation. He could not find any farther documents respecting Henry until last year, when this man applied for a compensation. He found, on reference to Mr. Ryland, that Henry had been employed as he stated, and had been promised by Sir James Craig an employment in Canada. Several most respectable houses in the Canada trade also had recommended him in the warmest terms, and it was under these circumstances that he had recommended him to Sir George Prevost, to be appointed to some employment. He saw no necessity for the noble lord's motion. Surely they were entitled to expect that the government of the United States, before making such a communication to congress, would have communicated with our minister there, or with their minister here, in order to have the transactions of which they complained explained; and he trusted their lordships would give his majesty's ministers credit for not delaying to put the matter in a right course in the proper channel. Under these circumstances, he could not, consistently with his public duty, consent to the motion.

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CHAPTER III.

Death and Biographical Sketch of Horne Tooke.-A Key to the Orders in Council.

ABOUT this time the celebrated Horne Tooke died: this remarkable character having com-menced his political career with the first American war, certainly demands the present attention of the reader; for, in the period in which he lived, and the sphere which he filled, no man was ever more active or conspicuous.

From the commencement of the reign of his present majesty, to the day of Horne Tooke's death, scarcely had any public occurrence passed in which he had not had a greater share than belonged to his mere private station. He had accordingly been the most active individual in a period of general activity. He had lived in more revolutions of politics and parties than any other man of the day, and in all of them his talents or his intrigue, his good or bad intentions, and his indefatigable spirit and exertions rendered him

an actor.

Mr. Tooke was born in an humble station of life; his father is said to have been a poulterer. But as his father, who lived in some of the small streets about Westminster, had the spirit to send

his son to a public school, and afterwards to a college, it is a reasonable conclusion either that he was richer than ordinary, or that he possessed a very superior mind to what usually belongs to his condition.

His father at any rate was sufficiently respectable to be the treasurer of a public charity. This was the Middlesex Hospital, of which Horne Tooke afterwards himself became one of the governors.

Mr. Tooke was sent to Westminster School at a very early age, and is said to have passed through all the forms of that distinguished seminary. This course of itself, in such a mind as that of Horne Tooke, was sufficient to render him the eminent scholar which he afterwards exhibited himself. It is the character of Westminster School, that it puts its pupils in the right way, and imbibes them with a right mind, and therefore they have only to follow in future life the plan which is there traced for them. This is all that any school can do, and it is more we believe than is done by the greater part of them.

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