VII. 1812. country, ever came before Parliament. There can be no СНАР. doubt that a case of grave distress to the manufacturing classes has been made out in the evidence, and there is reason to fear that if the North American market is not speedily opened that suffering will be augmented. Even, however, if the repeal of the Orders in Council would occasion the abrogation of the American Non-intercourse Act, it does by no means follow that the original imposition of these Orders was not called for by necessity, and justified by expedience. Was it to be expected that Great Britain was tamely to have submitted to the iniquitous decrees of France without any attempt at retaliation? As against France, the retaliating system. adopted has perfectly succeeded. Severely as our commerce has suffered in the struggle, hers has suffered still more considerably. From the official accounts published by the French Government, it appears that even with their population of forty millions, the total amount of their manufactures for the home market and exportation taken together was only, in 1810, £54,000,000, while that of Great Britain and Ireland, for both, with a population of only 17,000,000, was £66,000,000. With the exception of the year 1811, which, from temporary causes, was one of great depression, the preceding years, when the Orders in Council were in operation, were periods of extraordinary and unprecedented prosperity. The average of our exports to continental Europe for three years before the passing of the Orders in Council was £17,500,000; for three years subsequent, £23,000,000. Can more convincing proof be desired that the machinations of the French Emperor for our destruction have not only failed in their object, but recoiled upon himself? 43. "It is therefore not the effect of the Orders in Council or the Continental System of the enemy which has caused Continued. the distress so severely felt in this country during the last years, but the interruption of our commercial intercourse with America, in consequence of the Non-inter СНАР. VII. 1812. 44. course Act passed in that country. But though this may now be admitted, it affords no argument against the original expedience of those measures on the contrary, quite the reverse. Such an extreme measure on their part was not in the ordinary course of events, and it was not to be calculated upon. The American Government might have seen that the Orders in Council were adopted by the English Cabinet as a measure of retaliation only; that they were issued after the Berlin Decree, under the pressure of necessity; and that if these defensive measures proved, as doubtless they did, injurious in a very high degree to the interests of American commerce, their enmity should have been directed against France, the primary cause of this destructive system of hostility, instead of this country, which was driven to it only in selfdefence. No pains were spared, when this system was of necessity adopted, to render it as little as possible oppressive to neutral powers; an instance of which disposition is to be found in the Order of 1809, limiting the blockade to France and the countries under her immediate control. The licence system, when properly understood, was no departure from the principle of the Orders in Council: not a fifth of them were intended to evade these orders: fourfifths of them arose from the necessity under which the enemy was laid of escaping the stringent effect of our measure. We did, however, offer to forego all the advantages of the licence system, and revert to the strict Order of 1807, if the Government of the United States would repeal the Non-intercourse Act; but hitherto they have shown no disposition to embrace such an offer. "The Prince Regent long ago issued a declaration, Concluded. bearing that as soon as the Berlin and Milan Decrees were repealed, the British Government would withdraw the Orders in Council; and the French Cabinet have recently communicated to the American Government a resolution, apparently consenting to abandon these Decrees if the British Orders in Council were at the same time repealed. CHAP. VII. 1812. That declaration, however, is not sufficiently explicit to authorise the British Government to act upon it, and it seems to be virtually abrogated by the sweeping declaration recently made by the Duke of Bassano (Maret), that the Berlin and Milan Decrees will remain in force till the maritime pretensions of this country shall be abandoned. But the British Government is fully disposed to receive the olive branch tendered, whether in good or bad faith, by the French ruler; she is willing, for a time, to suspend the Orders in Council, if the American Government will repeal the Non-intercourse Act. The sincerity of France will thereby be put to the test, and a breathing time gained in the midst of this mortal hostility, during which an opportunity will be afforded for a return to a more civilised species of warfare. If this experiment fails, and France persists in her frantic system of warfare, we must return to our retaliating system; but if driven to do so, we shall at least have the consolation of reflecting that we have shown every disposition to concede all the just demands of the neutral powers. And such a return would, it is hoped, not again lead to any interruption of the amicable relations between this country and her trans- 1 Parl. Deb, atlantic offspring, which it is the curse of both countries 536. should ever have been broken."1 xxiii. 522 45. the Orders No division took place upon this able and interesting debate, it being understood on both sides of the House Repeal of that Government had resolved to take the matter into in corner. their own hands, and that an unconditional repeal of the June 23. Orders in Council would soon appear. This expectation was not disappointed. On the 23d June an Order appeared in the London Gazette repealing the Orders in Council unconditionally, but with the declaration, that if the American Government did not, after due notice, repeal the Non-intercourse Act, this revocation should become null, and the original Orders revive. The American Government, however, did not accept the olive branch thus tendered to them. Before intelligence of this VII. 1812. CHAP. conciliatory measure had crossed the Atlantic, war was already declared by them, not against France, the original aggressor in the injury to neutrals, but against Great Britain, which had acted only in self-defence. The party in America, unhappily too numerous, which was set on foreign conquest and external aggression, deemed the opportunity favourable for conquering the Canadas, when Great Britain, as they thought, was at the last extremity in the war with Napoleon. 46. Situation power. Lord Castlereagh, on assuming the helm of foreign affairs in the beginning of March 1812, found affairs, of Europe both in the Peninsula and in Northern Europe, in the returned to most interesting and critical situation. Wellington had six weeks before stormed Ciudad Rodrigo, and preparations were making for an attack on Badajos. Napoleon was directing all his disposable forces in France, Germany, and Italy towards the Vistula; and Alexander, calm but resolute, was gathering up the forces of his mighty empire to resist the Western crusade. The first care of Lord Castlereagh on his accession to office was to write to Sir Henry Wellesley, Lord Wellington's brother, Minister at Cadiz, in the kindest manner, offering to continue him in his appointment, which was accepted.* Although Lord Castlereagh's courteous feelings made him allude to the * "I shall not detain you by expressing my regret that the public service has been deprived of Lord Wellesley's talents at a moment when, in many points of view, and in none more than with reference to the great cause of the Peninsula, they were of so much value; neither shall I attempt to describe how sensible I am of the great change it must operate in your feelings to have to conduct the duties of your situation with one so much less conversant with the subjects in discussion, and so much less entitled to your personal confidence. But I trust we are sufficiently known to each other to authorise me to assure you, with the utmost sincerity, that it will afford me the greatest personal gratification if I should be so fortunate as to succeed in reconciling you to remain under the change that has unfortunately taken place. I do not feel entitled to expect that my wishes can be conclusive on that point; but I look to the interest the public have in not being deprived of your experienced services at the present moment, and to the importance the Prince Regent attaches to your continuing to represent his Royal Highness in the Spanish Embassy, for reconciling you to remain at Cadiz."-LORD CASTLEREAGH to SIR HENRY WELLESLEY, Foreign Office, March 3, 1812; Castlereagh Correspondence viii. 245, 246. VII. 1812. change in the Foreign Office as a matter of regret to Sir CHAP. Henry, yet there can be no doubt that it was in reality a source of secret congratulation both to him and Lord Wellington. Great as Lord Wellesley's abilities undoubtedly were, they were not of the commanding kind of Lord Castlereagh's, nor so well qualified to contend with the almost hopeless difficulties with which the empire was beset in the beginning of 1811. All his efforts, seconded by those of Lord Wellington, had been unable to induce the preceding Administration to make efforts commensurate to the occasion, or worthy of the strength and majesty of the empire. His position in consequeuce had become so painful to him, that he could no longer endure it, and it was the strength of this feeling, as already mentioned, which had led to his resignation. Lord Wellington was not less chagrined than his illustrious brother at the disregard of their combined representations, which, from terror of public clamour about expense, had been displayed by the late Cabinet, and his feelings exhaled in bitter complaints against the "Republic of a Cabinet," which could not be induced to do anything really worthy of the occasion-an opinion which will probably, to the end of the world, be shared by all who in arduous circumstances are brought in contact with a Board, or other small body of men, not thoroughly subjugated by one commanding spirit. 47. change pro reagh's ac office. When matters were in this state between the British Government and their Foreign Minister and illustrious Great" General, it was a most fortunate circumstance that a change duced by took place at this crisis of the war, which at once restored Lord Castlesingleness of direction to the Cabinet, and an adequate cession to degree of support to the General in the field. Although, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lord Castlereagh was not immediately brought in contact with the Commander-inChief, and the official correspondence of the latter was with the Earl of Liverpool, yet he soon communicated the impress of his mind to the whole Ministry, and gained VOL. I. 2 L |