ART. 11. Our ministers of the interior, of justice, and of the finances, are charged with the execution of the present decree.

By the Emperor.

NAPOLEON.

The Minister Secretary of State,

H. B. DUKE OF BASSANO.

The Counsellor Director General of the Customs,

THE COUNT DE SUSSY.

FROM THE

MESSAGE

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES RELATIVE

TO THE FLORIDAS. JAN. 3, 1811.

[Not published, as negotiations on the subject are still pending.]

MESSAGE

FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES TO CONGRESS. JAN. 12, 1811.

I TRANSMIT to Congress, copies of a letter from the minister plenipotentiary of the United States, at London, to the Secretary of State, and of another, from the same, to the British secretary for foreign affairs.

JAMES MADISON.

Mr. Pinkney to Mr. Smith. London, Nov. 5, 1810. SIR, I have presented a second note, of which a copy is enclosed, to lord Wellesley, on the subject of the orders in council, under an impression that the state of the king's health (for which I beg to refer you to the paper herewith transmitted) did not render it improper, and that if it was not improper on that account, it was indispensable on every other.

The day had gone by when the Berlin and Milan decrees were to cease to operate, according to the communication made by the government of France to the American minister at Paris, and published in the official journal of that government; and yet no step whatever had been taken, or apparently thought of, towards the revocation of the British orders. I had received no explanation of the reasons of this backwardness, and no such assurance, looking to the future, as could justify an opinion, that it would not continue. Lord Wellesley's letter of the 31st of August, which I had left unanswered till after the 1st of November, that I might stand on the strongest possible ground when I did answer it, made no profession of being a present measure, and (though from obvious motives, have not so represented it in my note to him of the 3d inst.) was vague and equivocal as a prospective pledge. It defined nothing, and was so far from warranting any specifick expectation, that it seemed rather to take away the very little of precision which belonged to former declarations on the same point. It was highly important to the commerce of the United States, that this ambiguity

should be cleared away, with all practicable expedition, and if it could not be removed, that no presumption should be afforded of a disposition on the part of the United States to acquiesce in it. My note to lord Wellesley was written and delivered upon these inducements.

In the king's actual situation, the orders in council can scarcely be formally recalled, even if the cabinet are so inclined; but it does not follow that something may not be done (though I have no reason to think that any thing will be done) which may be productive of immediate advantage, and at any rate prepare the way for the desired repeal. I have the honour to be, &c.

Hon. R. Smith, Secretary of State.

WM. PINKNEY.

P. S. This letter is written in great haste, that I may send it to Liverpool by this evening's mail.

W. P.

Mr. Pinkney to Lord Wellesley. Great Cumberland Place, Nov. 3, 1810.

MY LORD,-In my note of the 25th of August, I had the honour to state to your lordship, that I had received from the minister plenipotentiary of the United States, at Paris, a letter, dated the 6th of that month, in which he informed me, that he had received from the French governmert a written and official notice, that it had revoked the decrees of Berlin and Milan, and that after the first of November, those decrees would cease to have any effect; and I expressed my confidence, that the revocation of the British orders in council, of January and November, 1807, and April, 1809, and of all other orders dependent upon, analogous to, or in execution of them, would follow of

course.

Your lordship's reply, of the 31st of August, to that note, repeated a declaration of the British minister in America, made, as it appears, to the government of the United States in February, 1808, of "his majesty's earnest desire to see the commerce of the world restored to that freedom which is necessary for its prosperity, and his

readiness to abandon the system which had been forced upon him, whenever the enemy should retract the principles which had rendered it necessary," and added an official assurance, that, "whenever the repeal of the French decrees should have actually taken effect, and the commerce of neutral nations should have been restored to the condition in which it stood previously to the promulgation of those decrees, his majesty would feel the highest satisfaction in relinquishing a system which the conduct of the enemy compelled him to adopt."

Without departing, in any degree, from my first opinion, that the United States had a right to expect, upon every principle of justice, that the prospective revocation of the French decrees would be immediately followed by at least a like revocation of the orders of England, I must remind your lordship, that the day has now passed when the repeal of the Berlin and Milan edicts, as communicated to your lordship, in the note above mentioned, and published to the whole world by the government of France, in the Moniteur of the 9th of September, was, by the terms of it, to take effect. That it has taken effect, cannot be doubted; and it can as little be questioned, that, according to the repeated pledges, given by the British government, on this point, (to say nothing of various other powerful considerations,) the prompt relinquishment of the system, to which your lordship's reply to my note of the 25th of August, alludes, is indispensable.

I need scarcely mention how important it is to the trade of the United States, that the government of Great Britain should lose no time in disclosing with frankness and precision its intentions on this head. Intelligence of the French repeal has reached America, and commercial expeditions have doubtless been founded upon it. It will have been taken for granted that the British obstructions to those expeditions, having thus lost the support which, however insufficient in itself, was the only one that could ever be claimed for them, have been withdrawn; and that the seas are once more restored to the dominion of law and justice.

I persuade myself that this confidence will be substantially justified by the event, and that to the speedy recall of such orders in council as were subsequent in date to the decrees of France, will be added the annulment of the

antecedent order to which my late letter respecting blockades particularly relates. But if, notwithstanding the circumstances which invite to such a course, the British government shall have determined not to remove those obstructions with all practicable promptitude, I trust that my government will be apprized, with as little delay as possible, of a determination so unexpected, and of such vital concern to its rights and interests; and that the reasons upon which that determination may have been form ed, will not be withheld from it.

I have the honour, &c. &c.

WM. PINKNEY.

MESSAGE

FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. JAN. 14, 1811.

I TRANSMIT to the House of Representatives, copies of the documents referred to in their resolution of the fourth instant.

JAMES MADISON.

CIRCULAR.

Treasury Department, Nov. 2, 1810.

SIR,-You will herewith receive a copy of the proclamation of the President of the United States, announcing the revocation of the edicts of France which violated the neutral commerce of the United States, and that the restrictions, imposed by the act of May 1st last, accordingly cease from this day in relation to France. French armed vessels may therefore be admitted into the harbours and waters of the United States, any thing in that law to the contrary notwithstanding.

It also follows, that if Great Britain shall not, on the 2d of February next, have revoked or modified in like manner her edicts violating the neutral commerce of the United