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regulations, of 1807, as would leave the commerce of that country perfectly free. But let it be first enquired where such a measure would end; were England to repeal her Orders in Council and abandon the license trade, a trade would at once be opened by which America would be enabled without interruption to carry the produce and manufactures of France and her dependencies to every port in the world; while England would be entirely shut out from that trade which her enemies were only enjoying by her permission. That no doubt can exist in the mind of any person in the world, who will take pains to consult the evidence we have on the subject, that the commercial restrictions adopted by the French government, although they, in some measure, affected this country, inflicted a severe wound on their trade and resources; that since the Orders in Council were issued in 1807, the commerce of France had experienced a severe falling off, as appeared evident from the affairs of her national bank, and the transactions in her money market; and in like proportion has her revenue failed since that period.

It was said that an appointment of a committee of the House of Commons, for the purpose of considering the measure now before them, could answer no good end, without that committee, by an interference with the affairs of America, should controul the deliberations of the cabinet, a proposal not at all likely to find support in this house. At the deliberations of such a committee, persons of conflicting interests were to be examined; Come from whose connection with the trade of America have naturally imbibed certain prejudices in its favor; others again who stand connected solely with the trade to the continent of Europe, and whose prejudices must therefore stand opposed to those of the first class; under such a state of things, it would be impossible for a committee to arrive at any conclusion. On the whole, it would be an act both mean and despicable to announce

to the world, that a question in which was involved so much importance to the nation, should be decided on the narrow and sordid principle of profit and loss.

But there is yet a quarter to which we may look, as having produced many of the evils which may have afflicted our commercial and manufacturing interests, viz. the unexampled prosperity of British trade in the years 1809 and 1810, which had begotten such a spirit of wild speculation amongst our merchants and manufacturers, that in the event of the least stagnation, in connection with the French decrees, could not fail of drawing in its train all the evils alluded to. Under such circumstances, is this house to set their seal to a prejudice imbibed by the manufacturers, and no doubt originating from corrupt motives, that all the distresses which befel them have grown out of the bad policy of their own government. That not the least connection exists between the Orders in Council and the license trade; that the property of British subjects has no other means of admission into the continent of Europe, only under cover of neutrality; and in order to pursue a trade between enemies, it is necessary to grant neutral licenses, that a treasonable and unlawful intercourse may be prevented, and that neutrals may not be subjected to British seizure. That there is no available means, under the existing circumstances of Europe, by which England could have carried on a trade with the European continent, entirely pure and irreproachable; but to say that in consequence of the frauds practised on that trade, it ought to be entirely abandoned, betrays a vile hypocrisy. But admitting, for argument's sake, that a repeal of the Orders in Council had taken place, and that Americans, without interruption, had been permitted to carry the sugars of the Island of Cuba into France, and in return to carry back to South America the manufactures of Germany, while the French decrees were still in full operation upon the trade of Great

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Britain, there would yet have been (as was remarked of the present system,) "forgery in the origin, and perjury and fraud in the conclusion of the transactions."

It was ridiculous to imagine from the policy of Buonaparte, that he was inimical to all trade; he undoubtedly was to British commerce, but as regarded that of his own, he seemed to have its interest very much at heart. That the government of the United States had coalesced with him not only in requiring the repeal of the Orders in Council, but also an entire abandonment of the system of blockade practised by Great Britain; it was therefore idle to think, that a repeal of the Orders in Council was sufficient to conciliate America. The principles upon which these orders were founded were entirely retaliatory, and as such were they described by Mr. Canning; it had however been deemed expedient on the part of Great Britain to mitigate them in favor of neutral nations which fully evinced the desire of the British government to confine the evil wholly to the enemy. The injury sustained by the neutral through the operations of the Orders in Council, where the principle of retaliation was closely adhered to, was merely incidental, and which could not be avoided and therefore became, on the side of the government of Great Britain, a matter of deep regret; but on whom had been forced the measures from which it resulted .

Persons who raised such strong objections to the principles of retaliation with an enemy, would have done well to have borne in mind that no other method is atainable, by which to enforce obedience to the law of nations Let a considerable power once presume to hold in contempt every principle of honor which the civilized nations of the world have hitherto held sacred, and to set at open defiance all law, by which nations have as yet suffered themselves to be governed, and to prosecute a war in violation of all this, how is it to be arrested in its mad career but by recurring to measures of

retaliation? A remark had been made, that, should Great Britain retaliate, it ought to be in that manner in which the enemy had inflicted the injury on her; how wild and extravagant would be such a mode of proceeding. If it were the choice of the enemy to violate the law of nations, in a case where his own risk was nothing, (as he had nothing to lose, at the same time we had every thing at stake,) will it be once pretended that we were bound to chastise him in a way in which he would not feel the consequences of his madness and folly? The very object for which the Orders in Council were issued was never intended to destroy the commerce of the continent of Europe, but to compel the continent to trade with Great Britain, and to ensure to Great Britain alone an exclusive right to that trade.

What a mode of reasoning was that which imputed to the Orders in Council all the embarrassments which have recently overtaken the commercial interests of the country, when it was incontestibly proved that for two or three years after these orders had been issued, an effect diametrically opposite to this had been the result, and when the commercial difficulties had evidently been traced to causes very different!

In reply to those who complained of the immoral tendency of the system of granting licenses, as exhibited in the form of the licenses themselves, it was observed that the very clause which had undergone such a severe censure had been framed by the previous administration, and that the present ministers in their offices found them prepared and digested by those very persons who now affected to be so much scandalized by the discovery. It was surely a childish idea to imagine for a moment, that the commercial interests of France felt no effect from the British Orders in Council; the impoverished state of her custom was a sufficient proof against such an opinion; if it were not, look to the tenor of an address from her senate to Buonaparte, where it was confessed that no

longer did the people of France enjoy a commerce, except what their canals afforded them; while it was tully and unequivocally admitted, that, in every respect, they labored under the most unparalleled commercial embarrassments.

That under no principle of reasoning was Great Britain under an obligation to suffer an arrogant power like France to prescribe laws to neutral nations, without making an effort to induce those neutrals to assert their rights; from which is plainly observable that the leading object of the famous Orders in Council, was, not only the chastisement of France for her insults, but to incite America to disentangle herself from a connection into which, in an evil hour, she had unhappily suffered herself to be involved, and to resume that situation of rank and independence which she had once held among the nations of the world.

Such are the outlines of those celebrated debates on the causes which led to the war with the United States, in both houses of parliament; the result of which was, that the motion introduced into the House of Lords, by the Marquis of Lansdowne, and that into the House of Commons, by Mr. Brougham, were negatived by a large majority.

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