Star. — London, England, 1828-08-06 00:00:00

STATE PAPERS, Concluded from the &ma of Yestorday. UIRtStONDINICR SILSITTE TO CONMERCIRL INTERCOURSE ITTIVERN Tut UNITED STATES OE AMERICA ANSI TEE SMIRK WEST DMA COLONIES. • 110. 4. ALBUM GALLAIIN, RSQ. TO TN! RARE OF DURUM. Upper Seymour-street, Oct. 3, 1547. The undersigned, Minister of the United States, has the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the Note ad dressed to him, on the Ist of this month, by Lord Dud ley, his Majesty's Principal Secretary of State tor Foreign Affairs, in answer to the Notes of the undersigned of the 4th of June and 17th of August last, on the subject of the colonial intercourse. It is believed that Lord Dudley would, on a close ex amination of the measures which the President of the United States was willing to recommend to Congress, have been satisfied that those measures would not only have tended to relax, but would have altogether abro gated all the restrictions imposed by the American Le gislature on the colonial intercourse through the medium of British vessels. The objection drawn from an anticipation of the de tails, which might have accompanied the general prin ciples of the proposed law, would have been easily removed. And those that are suggested against the process recommended by the American Government, seem less conclusive against it than supporting the pre ference which the United States had given to an ar rangement by treaty. But since his Majesty's Ministers are of opinion that much may torn on the position and circumstances of Great Britain, of the United States, and of the com mercial world in general, when such law should come into effect, and since, in declining to give the pledge invited by the overture of America, they have expli citly declared that their resolutiun was the result of considerations, general in their nature and conclusive against a prospective pledge of any description respect ing the colonial policy of Great Britain, the under signed, whose efforts to obtain a more favourable an swer to the inquiry he bad been directed to make . have been unavailing, has no other duty to perform in that respect than to transmit to his Government the determination of that of Great Britain. It is with regret that the undersigned finds that Lord Dudley. who had at first considered the Note of the 4th of June as not calling for any reply. has now deemed it necessary to offer some comment on the explanations contained in that Note, of the conduct of the Govern ment of the United States, in relation to the colonial intercourse subsequent to the Act of Parliament of July INS. He had designedly separated the explanations from the inquiry, and suffered more than two months to elapse between his two Notes, in order to afford suf ficient time for any reply which that of the 4th of June might require, and in order that the discussion on the topics embraced by it being finally concluded, the pro- posal he bad to make might be taken into consideration, without any retrospect of antecedent circumstances, and solely as a question of policy and mutual convenience. It is with unfeigned reluctance that he finds himself compelled again to revert to points already so much debated, and to take some notice of Lord Dudley's observations, on explanations which, it had been hoped, would have been deemed satisfactory. It is correctly stated that the reasons alleged by the United St ties for not having complied with the con dition prescribed by the Act of Parliament of July, 182.5, were—lst, because the opinion was entertained that it was still the intention of Great Britain that the intercourse should be arranged by negotiation ; 2dly, because it was not known whether the condition was rightly understood. On the last point, Lord Dudley seems to think that the doubts, which the undersigned had mentioned as attaching to the•eneaning of the Act, were rather the suggestions of his own mind, than the recorded grounds of the perplexity felt by the American Government or Legislature. And he infers, from the specific proposal contained in the Note of the undersigned of the 17th of August, and from an allusion to a declaration of Mr. Canning, that the condition in question bad seemed to the Government of the United States so perfectly clear for all practical purposes, as to be susceptible only of one interpretation. The Nute of the undersigned, in which be tried to explain in what consisted the difficulty of understanding what was meant by the condition of the Act of Parlia ment, is that of December 28.1826 ; and that note was explicitly stated to be founded on a " Dispatch from the Secretary of State of the United States, the substance of which be was instructed to communicate to Mr. Canning." The statement of the doubts attaching to the meaning of the Act, though varied in the expres sion, was in substance taken from that dispatch, which, although it has not attracted the notice of Lord Dudley, was communicated to Congress, and re-published in December or January last in several of the London newspapers. Bat as, notwithstanding this, doubts may still be enter tained respecting the recorded grounds of the perplexity felt on that subject by the American Government and Legislature, during the Session of 1825, 1826, the un dersigned has the honour to enclose a copy of the Re port of the Committee of the Senate of March 31, 1826, to which he had already alluded in his Note of the 4th of June. This document will satisfy Lord Dudley, that the Committee had under consideration the Baltimore Me morial. requesting that British vessels, from whatever ports, might be Omitted (in the ports of the United States) on the sa ne terms as the vessels of the most fa vowed nations; and that the Committee's Report against the prayer of the ps-titioners was founded on two rea sons: First, that to admit British vessels indiscriminately with their cargoes, from whencesoever arriving, or of whatsoever compo,ed, on the same terms as vessels of the most favoured nations, or, in other words, to com ply with the condition of the Act of Parliament, as un derstood by the Committee, would operate as a surren der of the principle of equality, &c. Secondly, that a corresponding desire to arrange the colonial intercourse on a satisfactory footing, appeared to exist on the part of the British Government ; and that the negotiations respecting it were expected to come to a definitive issue before the next Session of Congress To this day, the Goveinraent of the United States are not sure that they understand precisely what was in tended by the condition. Desirous as they were that their proposal should be accepted, they wished to present it in the most unexceptionable form; and if, instead of offering to comply with the Act of Parliament, which certainly was the most simple proposition, and the most likely to be favourably received, a specific proposal has been made, it is. in tact, because it was thought unsafe to agree to terms not sufficiently understood, and which have not been explained. It has been justly observed by Lord Dudley, that the abolition of the discriminating duties must. under any construction of the Act, have been an essential term in the condition. The undersigned. in his note of Decent— her 28. 1626, when observing that the words—" Cow mace and navigation of this country," might have been intended to include only the circuitous intercourse, ex pressly stated what was true, that 61 this last inter pretation had been suggested only by the observe tions that bad occurred in the coarse of Mr. Can ning's correspondence with hini." Mr. Canning had limited his animadversions on the Acts of the United States to two enactments only—the discriminating du ties, and the restrictions on British vessels employed in what bas been called the circuitous or indirect inter course. The specific proposal made by the United States embraces those two objects. Having no ether light but what was derived from the correspondence, they presumed. without being certain that they were not mistaken, that it might be accepted as a fulfilment of the condition. The intimation that they would have considered the removal of the interdict as a matter of course, had it not been for Mr. Canning's declaration, is clearly to be understood as founded on the supposi tion that they were not mistaken in the interpretation. which, for the reasons that have been stated, they had ventured to give t ► the Act of Parliament. But it can not certainly be inferred that, because, in framing a proposal and reasoning upon it, they have been induced to adopt, or rather to assume, a certain construction, they no longer have, much less that they never bad, well-founded doubts on the meaning of the Act. It is rather remarkable that, after those doubts had been so explicitly stated in the Note c f December 28, 1826, to Mr. Canning, he did not even advert to that branch of the discussion in his reply of January 27, 1827, and still more so, that Lord Dudley, whilst com menting upon it, should have carefully avoided giving any explanation, and, on the contrary, should have dis tinctly said, that be neither admitted nor denied that construction which the undersigned had suggested as being the literal, and which Lord Dudley designates as the severer interpretation of the Act. The undersigned is at a loss how to account for the reluctance which seems to have been evinced of saying at once what was truly intended by the condition so cfcen alluded to. The final disposition of the Bill which had been in troduced for the repeal of the discriminating duties, even if considered as an absolute rejection, proves only that either it appeared to be unnecessary, as not fulfil ling all the conditions required by the Act of Parlia ment, or that the American Legislature relied on the' issue of the expected negociations. If the Government of the United States did not apply to that of Great Britain for an explanation of the con dition, it was partly because the distance between the two countries would have rendered such explanation unavailable, in relation to any proceedings of Congress during the pending Session, principally because entire reliance was placed on the issue of the negociations, since the Cabinet of Washington had concluded to with draw all the propositions which had heretofore pre vented an arrangement. The reasons why not the slightest apprehension was entertained of the determination of the British Govern ment to consider this as no longer a fit subject for nego tiations, have been repeatedly stated. At the conclusion of the conferences of the year 1824, between the Plenipotentiaries of the two countries, the negociations were expressly stated to be suspended, by the necessity of referring to Washington on some of the subjects which had been discussed ; and the Plenipo tentiaries parted under circumstances which prevented, for Me present, any further progress in the negociations. Indeed those which have been carried on between his Majesty's Plenipotentiaries and the undersigned, have been so clearly considered as being generally the con tinuation of the negociations of 1824. that, at their first conference, and in relation to the subject first taken up. the British Plenipotentiaries observed 66 that a proposal of settlemeat on that subject having been offered on the part of Great Britain, during the course of the negocia tions in 1824, which proposal had been taken by the American Plenipotentiary fur reference to his Govern ment, they presumed that Mr. Gallatin was prepared to give an answer to that, or to offer some new proposal." And the American Plenipotentiary did accordingly substitute another proposal for that which bad been made by Mr. Rush in 1824. There was, therefore, a perfect understanding be tween the two Governments in that respect. His Ma jesty's Minister at Washington, in conformity with it, announced, in March, 1826, to the Government of the United States, that his own was preparing to proceed in the important negociations between the two coun tries, that a new Plenipotentiary had been appointed on the part of Great Britain, and that the negotiations would, therefore, be forthwith resumed. No exception had been made, none was at that time suggested to be intended on the part of Great Britain, with respect to the Colonial intercourse. Lord Dudley has taken no notice of the circum stances which so naturally induced the American Go vernment to rely on the ensuing negotiation, as the means of regulating the intercourse in a manner satis factory and beneficial to both countries. But, referring to a letter of December, 1825, from Mr. Clay to a Member of Conn sr, he has expressed his astonishment that it could have been supposed that the British Go vernment did not mean so to construe the Act of July, 1825, as to comprehend the United States within it and that, if it had been at first presumed that they would be excepted by a special Order in Council, that expecta tion should have been unshaken, when, after six months, no such order had been issued, nor any intimation given to that effect. It has not been believed by the Government of the United States that, in case an arrangement was not made by treaty, they would, nevertheless, by special favour, be permanently exempted from the general operation of the Act. But it was presumed that Great Britain, under - the expectation of a favourable issue of the negociations that were to be forthwith resumed, would suspend the operation of the Act, in regard to the United States, until the result of those negociations was ascertained. In what manner that suspension would be effected was not known. Mr. Clay's letter is written entirely in that spirit. He did not believe that it was intended by the British Go vernment, that the Act of July, 1825, should disturb the trade between the British Colonies and the United , States, first and principally, because it would be incon sistent with negociations between the two Governments, contemplated, if not yet resumed. Had it not been that it had been announced by the authorities at Halifax, that it was intended to close that port against American vessels, he would have been strongly inclined to think, that the intercourse was inonded to continue to be regulated by the former Acts of Parliament. If the Ha lifax construction should prove to be correct, he was persuaded that an'exception in favour of the American trade would be made by a special Order in Council. It is true that no such order was issued, and equally true that, after the lapse of a few weeks, deither Mr. Clay, nor any other person in America, expected that it would be issued. For the Halifax construction bar ing been abandoned, and chat, as well as all the other British colonial ports, remaining open to American vessels after the day when the Act of Parliament was to take effect, it was concluded without further investi gation, that that Act was not intended, at least for a vim', to operate on the United States. it has since been made known that the suspension, which in fact took place, was intended by Great Britain, not infers. rence to negotiation, but In order to ascertain the result of the proceedings of Congress. la , rd Dudley intimates that the Government of the United States set out with a very mistaken opinion of the views of Great Britain respecting her colonies, and more especially respecting the importance to those co lonies of a direct intercourse with the ports of the United States; and he seems to think that this is the only prin ciple which would account for some of the proceedings ot that Government. Coinciding entirely in Lord Dudley's opinion, that perfect frankness is not only consistent with friendly feelings, but even essential to a mutual good under standing and confidence, the undersigned will be as lexplicit on this as on any other subject. The United States do not suppose the direct inter course between their ports and the British colonies to be necessary to those colonies. They know that the British West Indies have been supplied by other means, and have not materially suffered during those periods when that intercourse was interrupted by war, or has been interdicted by the laws of the two countries. . But, though not necessary to either party. that com merce is known to be beneficial to both. The proof is found in the tact, that it has always been carried on to a considerable extent whenever it has been permitted ; that absolute prohibitions can alone stop it. That Great Britain thinks so herself cannot be denied. It is believed that, except when the two nations have unfortunately been at war, there has not to this day been any time, at which the intercourse has not, with certain limits. tions, been allowed by her in British vessels. There are not, perhaps, two countries, within the same distance from one another, and with such easy and prompt communications, which have products so essentially different as the West Indies and the United States. There are, therefore, not any between which commerce is more natural, and the exchange of their respective commodities more mutually beneficial. The laws which interdict such an intercourse are an obvious and practical departure from those principles of free trade which are, iu other respects, so ably upheld and vindicated. It is not at all asserted that the injury arising from a suspension of that commerce is more heavily felt by one party than by the other. The American Govern ment neither over-rates the importance to the West In dies of the direct intercourse, nor denies its great utility to the United States. In both countries the planter or _ . farmer is, by the suspension, deprived of one of the mar. kets for his produce, and compelled to pay dearer for his supplies ; and a positive evil is inflicted on both parties, without any visible advantage to either. The right of Great Britain to regulate the intercourse with her Colonies is not questioned ; and it is not usual for nations to make any great sacrifice for the sake of asserting abstract principles which are not contested. Sbe is undoubtedly the only proper judge of what should be her commercial policy. The undersigned has not been fortunate enough to be able tn discover what actial advantages she derives from the measures in which she perseveres in regard to the colonial inter-" course. He has apprehended that considerations foreign to the, question. might continue to oppose obstacles to a proper understanding. Nothing has been omitted to remove those which might have arisen from miscon. ceptions of the views and proceedings of the American Government. It is gratifying to have received auur ances that the decision of Great Britain was not is le- ' by any unfriendly feeling towards the United States. Their sentiments for Great Britain are those of amity and good will ; and their Government is ani mated by a sincere desire to improve and strengthen the friendly relations of the two countries. The nudenigned has the beam to renew, ate. (Signed) ALBERT GA LL ATTN. The Bari et Dudley, Re. dm. THE EVENING STAR. LONDON. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6, 1826. STOCK EXCHANGE, TWELVE O'CLOCK. There are no arrivals this morning of the least importance, coo sequently the Cowed market as present remains without any lac tastier', and no business doing. Consuls opened this morning at $Bl to 87 for the Account, at which price they may be quoted at present.—Accouats received by the Hamburgh steam-boat arrived yesterday state. that the Turks have assembled ail thousand men at Schumla, most of which are new disciplined troops, with a determination to give battle to the Russians. CITY. HALF-PAST ONE O'CLOCK. The Coneol market has not so good an appearance as in the early part of the morning, when they were steady at 86i to 87 but at present they may be quoted at 861 i fur the Accsant. In the Foreign market little or nothing is doing. We have received the Menthurgh &pater of the Ist Aupst, from which we copy the following— BOSS= HALL, Foot °Tr-ass —The Funds were very heavy yes terday, several Sellers for the end of August having shown them selves in the early part of the morning. Danish for the end of August were offered at S9i ; Russian, width could annasand 91 to last post, fen to 901 for the middle of August. Bank Shares fell from 1010 to 1072, and Metal's,' is kern 94 to 3e. A good deal was done is bletallieues fee the end of October at 92i, end of December 01. The decline is attributed in a great measure to the fan of Russian Stock at Berlin. Fund@ in general ;matinee very heavy. - - - -- The following report Suds general credit: That am engagement had taken place between the Russian. and Turks, between Munk and Varna, in which the former suffered a severe look—Other accounts states that it was only a putial enpgetnent, and not of great importance. PRICE OF STOCKS AT FOUR O'CLOCK. India Bends 114 South Sea Stock ese Old Annuities New Ditto 41000 Excheq. ails 72 S Moo Ditto 72 3 £lOO and 82200 Ditto 72 Bank for Acct. 2151 Coosa for Acct. al Si TWO O'CLOCK. bi1et.136,111246p Q. NI Do. Acct. ID/ trßds a p Ct. 10e 310,11 Bask Stock 213 14 3 per Cent. Red. 671.1 3 per Ct.Cona. 57 6/ se pet Cent. 96 31 per Cent. Rol. 951 I 4 per Ct. New.lol i 4 4 per Cent. 1826, Long Ann. 19 546 20 India Stock 2431 FOREIGN FUN Bessillanßds. 5 pCt. De Aect 63 Dinh& lids. s pCt. 61/ 1 Do Acct. 611 BRITISH AND FOREIGNSHARRS, TWO O'CLOCK. &lame Irasillan Colombian General Mining Asso. United Me:lean SWAM PAID. 300 090 275 3.5 10 69 70 100 SS tti SO 1 Ist 40 SS 401 40 We resume our consideration of the present state of Continental Politics. In what we submitted to our readers on Monday, we endeavoured to establish a distinction (more, we confess, for the sake of having our argument unfettered, than from any conviction of its necessity), between what the course of events may, of themselves, produce, and svba may be the results of a premeditated line of policy.... If, however, evil be to arise, it matters little to o we whom it affects whether they are the victims of chance or of design. When we look back to the original concoction of the Treaty of the 6th July, barely twelve months since—. and remember that Am the Ambassadors of England. France, and Russia were amicably and jointly cretin themselves at Constantinople, to obtain the ends centers. plated by that Treaty—and when we now see, Russia singly in the field—France embarking a military force ,for the Morea—and England only so/here sit was—k it impossible not to be struck with the change. It is not, we are assured, every thing is as it ought to be ; and that ' although Russia and France are striding onwards, and England standing still, yet they are all going together; or, in other words, that the first two Powers are doing no, thing whicL is not perfectly agreeable to the last. We cars• not help wishing, however, that instead of Eagland look. ing on merely, with an approving smile, she were side by side with her allies ; because, if she should wish to over. take them by and bye, we are afraid they would have the best of the race. She, who, in the fair exercise at her strength, knows no superior among all her rivals a t scompetitors, may, when taken at a disadvantage, have to brook defeat ; or, at the best, achieve victory with tee fold greater sacrifices than would have been necessary in the first instance. And, if England should find herself so circumstanced, what should we have to lament? The want of energy, or wisdom. or prudence, in her Ministers? No—but her unsuspecting confidence, and her reliance upon the good faith and the integrity of others—a reliance spring. ing from the conscious purity and singleness of her ow= intentions. There were those who, from the first, foresaw, that, let the stipulations of the tripartite Treaty take what shape they might, Russia would not be long before she found, or made, a cause for separate quarrel wick Turkey. We know, indeed, that the Treaty itself, and the Protocol, of which it was the practical application, sprung from NECESSITY, and not from CHOICE. We state this advisediy.We say, distinctly, that if the late Mr. CANNING could have kept Russia quiet—if he could have restrained the policy of the Imperial Cabinet, no suck Treaty as that of the 6th July world now be in existence. But been was the diffaculty that great Statesman had to cope with : he had to choose between giving to Russia a carte blanche, as it wive, with regard to Turkey—to place England in direct conflict with her—or to amal gamate her projects with others which might fairly assume the character of a great international queens. He chi:teethe last, with the certainty of delaying for a time, and with the chance of ultimately defeating, the separate views of Russia. We will not venture to sea mise what aright have been the actual position of drain if Mr. CANNING bad lived to direct the machinery which he constructed ; we will not inquire whether the Allied Ambassadors would have lingered at Con stantinople till the beginning of 1826, or whether they would have left at all ; we will not allow ourselves to !guess, even, under what circumstances Russia 'odd have taken the field it her musks had been permitted to sewn. The Master Mind which would have solved aN these problems was withdrawn, and our business is to deal with things as they are. When there is a French army in the Mora, and whet the Russian standard Moats over the towers of St. Sophia, the drama will begin—and not before. At present we are only listening to the prologue : but unlike the prologue to a tragedy or a comedy, oar political one does not tell us what the play is to contain. No, no; we shall be left to find that out, as the piece pro ceeds, and the plot thickens. Is there any man credulous enough to believe, that Turkey can offer her invader any indemnities or ami ties sufficient to make him re-cross the Danube? Is there any sue who seriously thinks that the Emperor NICHOLAS is marching upon Constantinople only to obtain from Turkey—what Turkey will be able to give? We do not believe there can be an individual capable of forisiag a sound opinion upon them, who would venture to answer these questions in the affirmative. — We might ask a third question. If NICHOLAS %ere an absolute personification of magnanimity and ma deration—if be were ambitious only to show how gm. ciously he can pardon wrongs, and how calmly be LIS put aside temptation—is he the Monarch whose sitar lion is such as would permit him to indulge in thew ercise of these lofty virtues ? Has not the pen of His' wry recorded the elevation of CATUZAIIIIII and the death of PAUL? Do we not know that mystery s orrow:dill the descent of ALIZANDIIII to the tomb ? Aod b" we a right to calculate that NICHOLAS is ready to ages himself a martyr to the faithful execution of a Tine A powerful, turbulent, and semi-barbarous atistocracf si—a fierce and fanatical soldiery—and the accomplish' meat of what may justly be called an hereditary object of national ambition, would constitute the formidabl e obstacles which NICHOLAS must overcome, before le could return to Et.Petersburgh a self-denying connucoe' Our Government is not ignorant—France is not rant—Austria is not ignorant—of this peculiar chaise teristic in Russian policy as regards Turkey. Theretwe k was that Mr. CANNING struggled to the last to aunt her first step; and therefore; too, it is, that France pi, pares herself betimes to stand fair for her portion of the spoil—and that Austria is concentrating herself aldg the western frontier of the Turkish provinces. Tbe French troops, which are now going to expel IWO PAGUA, may remain, and secure the Protec torate of hope over the future independence of Greece; and tote Austrian Army of Observation will easily be co°' vetted into one of occorpation, whenever the Autocrat ands himself conspelkd to declare the capital of Turkel the seat of a Vice-regal Government, in the woe ° I I the CiarOVitC.ll CONSTANTINO. Then, too, we shall he Weer able to understand why the rights of prune genitors were surrendered by the Archduke, Wh en as