clines interfering in the case of the American brig the Good-Intent, except to enforce the decision which the council of prizes may ren der. As the Good-Intent was captured, bound to a port in the possession of the French armies, by a launch in the service of the French government, I had persuaded myself that she would not be treated as a prize; but that she would be restored like the John and the Hare, at Civita Vecchia, without the delay of a formal trial. It was in this expectation, that I omitted to place her on the list of American vessels captured since the 1st of November last, which I had the honor to address to your excellency in my note of the 11th ultimo. If his majesty the emperor should find it improper, upon being made acquainted with the circumstances of this case, to distinguish it from cases of ordinary capture, I presume there will be no objection to extending to it the benefit of any general decision which may be taken in regard to those mentioned in the list aforesaid I pray your excellency to accept the assurance of my high consideration. (Signed) JONATHAN RUSSELL. No. 7. Sir, Mr. Ruffell to the Duke of Baffano. Paris, May 18, 1811. On examining the list of vessels whose cargoes have been admitted, and which your excellency did me the honor to inclose tɔ me, in a note dated the 4th of this month, I have discovered that the schooner Friendship has been omitted. This vessel, as I am informed, arrived at Bordeaux on the 6th of December last, with a cargo of coffee, which from long detention has suffered considerable damage. As there is no circumstance, within my knowledge, to distinguish the cargo of this vessel from those which have been admitted, I doubt not that her case will be inquired after, and that she will be placed upon the same footing as the others. I pray your excellency to accept the assurance of my high consideration. (Signed) No. 8. JONATHAN RUSSELL. Mr. Ruffell to the Duke of Baffano. Sir, Paris, 10th June, 1811. I conceive it to be my duty to represent to your excellency, that the condition, attached to the admission of American property in France, to export two-thirds of the amount in silks, is attended with great inconvenience and loss to the American merchant. A general requisition to export the neat proceeds of imported cargoes in the produce and manufactures of the French empire, would have been so obviously intended to favor its industry and to prevent any indirect advantage resulting to its enemy by the remittance of exchange, that the right and policy of the measure would have been universally acknowledged. The American merchant, in this case, permitted to select from the various and abundant productions of the arts and agriculture of France, those articles which the habits and tastes of the American people demanded, might freely and advantageously have exercised his commercial skill for the advancement of his interests, and hoped, from the profit on his investments here, to obtain an indemnity for the losses on his outward voyage. The condition, however, imposed on him to receive two-thirds of these investments in a particular article, takes from him the facutty of profiting of his experience and information, either in bargaining for his purchases, or in adapting them to the wants of the market for which they are intended. The holder of this article becomes, by this requisition, the master not only of the price, but of the kind and quality of his merchandize; and his interest will strongly incite him to abuse the power which he feels. He knows full well, that the purchaser cannot dispense with this merchandize, and that sooner or later he must accede to the terms on which it is offered. Should indeed the American merchant, from his repugnance to invest his funds in an article forced upon him, loaded with the arbitrary exactions of the seller, refuse for a while to receive it, yet, beholding these funds inactive and wasting on his hands, and his vessel perishing in a foreign port, he must eventually yield to the duress which he suffers. Such are some of the evils, to which the condition in question will expose the American merchant in this country. In the United States, it will be by him still more severely felt. The overstock of the article forced by this condition on the market there, exceeding the consumption, must necessarily become a drug; and the American merchant, after having taken it here against his will, and paid for it more than its ordinary value, will be compelled in the United States to keep it on hand, or to sacrifice it for the most it will bring. Thus, alternately obliged to purchase and to sell under unfavorable circumstances, he will have to add to the losses of the outward voyage the losses on the returns, and the sum of them both may amount to his ruin. These disasters of the merchant must inevitably impair, if not extinguish, the commercial intercourse between the two countries.--This intercourse, exposed to unusual perils, and oppressed with un-. precedented burdens, has already nothing in the voyage hither to tempt the enterprize of mercantile men; and should it be embarrassed with the restrictions of this condition, rendering the homeward voyage also unprofitable, it must undoubtedly cease. It is in vain to expect the continuance of any branch of trade, which, in all its relations, is attended with loss to those who are engaged in it. I have taken the liberty respectfully to submit these observations to your excellency, not without a hope, that a consideration of them may lead to a remedy of the evils which they suggest. I pray your excellency to permit me to renew the assurance, &c. JONATHAN RUSSELL. (Signed) [Translation.] No. 9. The minister of foreign relations has the honor to inform Mr. Russell, charge des affaires of the United States, that he will be happy to receive him at any time to-day before two o'clock, if it should be convenient to him. He begs him to accept the assurance of his perfect consideration. Paris, 18th July, 1811. Sir, Correspondence of George W. Erving, Esquire. Mr. Erving to the Secretary of State. Copenhagen, June 23, 1811. HAVING had my audience of his Danish majesty on the 5th instant, on the 6th I addressed to Mr. de Rosenkrantz, minister of state for foreign affairs, a note upon the subject of the American cases generally, then under adjudication, by appeal before the high court of admiralty; and on the 7th, a separate note respecting the cases of capture under British convoy. Copy of those two notes, [A & B] and the lists to which they refer, I have the honor herewith to submit. In an interview which I had with the minister on the 8th inst. in the course of conversation he told me, that, as the matter of both those notes was very important, and the latter particularly required a great deal of consideration, he must have them perfectly translated into the Danish language, to be laid before the king; therefore I must not expect very prompt replies; but in the mean time that he was sincerely desirous of doing, and would do, every thing in his power, to forward our business towards a favorable termination. I suppose that the convoy question may be referred to his majesty's chancery, which is the highest tribunal, and that by which the king is accustomed to declare his will in matters which he does not submit to, or chooses to take out of, the ordinary course of proceedings. Having now fully informed myfelf of the bufinefs intrufted to me, it is with very great fatisfaction that I find myfelf authoriz. ed to ftate to you that the evils which our commerce has fuffered here, though very confiderable, yet have not been quite fo extenfive as has been generally believed; and you will learn alfo with very particular pleasure, that the depredations of the Danish privateers have been difcontinued fince my arrival. I have prepar ed lifts and statements with a view to place the whole matter before you, in the moft particular, and at the fame time moit diftinct and fimple form. Thefe will be completed when I have received returns from Norway and from Holftein, refpecting the fate of fome few of the cafes which occurred in the year 1809. In the mean time I can flate the refults to be nearly thus: Captures in 1809, Captures in Norway in the year 1810, 38. 12. 36. Of which are pending in the High Court 8, and not one has been finally condemned. Captures in Holftein, Sleswick and the Danish islands in Total condemnations, 42, of which 16 were veffels which had broken the embargo or non-intercourfe, or are otherwise not gen. uine American cafes. Pending cafes, including 10 convoy cafes, 24. In this year, the only two veffels which reached thefe feas from the United States previous to my arrival, were taken (in the beginning of April) and condemned in Norway; two others juft about the time of my arrival were carried in and are now under trial there; but fince the 11th inftant, upwards of forty veffels from the United States have paffed through the Sound and gone up the Baltic, and more or lefs are paffing every day without interruption. The papers of fome few have been flightly examined in the fubordinate court of Elfineur. There have been tried in the lower prize court of this place, and acquitted without delay, two or three, and one of them with damages against the captors, being the firft cafe in which damages have been given at Copenhagen. Finally, of the 14 cafes (not convoy cafes) which were pending before the high court on my arrival, four have been acquitted; and though the privateerfmen and all concerned with them (and the ramifications of their bufinefs are immenfe) have made every effort to bring on condemnations, yet the tribunal, otherwise perhaps well disposed to proceed, has been steadily held back by the government; and I fee the beft reafon to hope that at least eight of the remaining ten cafes will be acquitted. As to the convoy cafes, my confidence is not fo ftrong, yet even of them I do not despair; the ground on which they ftand I am aware is not perfectly folid, yet I did not feel myfelf authorized to abandon them, and therefore have taken up an argument, which may be difficult, but which I fhall go as far as poffible in maintaining. I have had feveral interviews with Mr. de Rofenkrantz fubfe quent to that last mentioned, and have acquired additional reafons to hope for the king's perfeverance in the change of fyftem which has fo happily taken place, but he difcourages any expec tation of indemnification for the injuries fuftained by our commerce under that which now appears to be relinquifhed. Yefterday he told me very explicitly that against the definitive decifions of the high court I must not hope for any redrefs; he trufted that for the future we should not have any caufe to complain, but for the paft there was no remedy. I thought it not opportune to enter much into the matter at that time, and therefore contented myself with fome general proteftations against his doctrines. I cannot clofe this letter without acknowledging the very great fervices of Mr. Ifaachfon, our conful at Chriftianfand. You will obferve. fir, in the lifts which I fhall fend to you, that of thirtyfix veffels carried into the ports of Norway in the year 1810, only four were condemned in the inferior courts of that diftrict; this has been wholly owing to the unwearied exertions of Mr. Ifaachfon. He found our people in the moft diftreffed fituation; entirely friendlefs, in the hands of, furrounded by, and ready to be facrificed to the rapacity of, the privateerfmen and their connexions; he volunteered in their fervice; he boldly oppofed himfelf to the hoft of their oppreffors; he made each man's caufe his own; he provided for every man's wants: in fhort, his intrepidity and independence, and difinterestedness of character, his conftant zeal and induftry, faved them from ruin, and with gratitude very honorable to themselves, they never cease to praise him. With the most perfect refpect and confideration, I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient fervant, GEORGE W. ERVING. To the Honorable Secretary of State. SIR, (A.) MR. ERVING TO MR. DE ROSENKRANTZ. Copenhagen, June 6, 1811. It was under the fulleft conviction and the strongest sense of the injuftice which has prevailed in the fentences of the Danish tribunals on cafes of American capture, as well as an anxiety immediately to arreft the course of thofe exceffes on the part of the privateers too much countenanced by fuch decifions, which are laying wafte the property of American citizens, that I ventured on the 31ft ult. and on the 2d inft. to requeft that the proceedings of the tribunals fhould be fufpended, until having had the honor of presenting my credentials to his majesty, I should be enabled to enter into regular communication with your ex. cellency. Remander of Mr. Erving's letter in next number.] |