The National Register. — London, England, 1812-06-28 00:00:00

7.7111 r'77Y7 1 7 - -.. 3 Fi'rl""r" %%Si .. THE NATIONAL cur Zing, Constitution, an Laths. PUBLISHED AT NO. 357, STRAND, CORNP.It OF 2XETER 'CHANGE. SUNDAY, JUNE cB. 1814. No. (-1 35 . POI IFICAL - . TOTAL REPEAL OF '[HE ORDERS IN COUNCIL. The satisfaction excited by the announced suspension of these Orders, and displayed in various parts of the country by public rejoicings, has been carried to its climax by their subsequent repeal. The first efiecti of this measure are sen sibly felt through the commercial world, may its last be equally propitious! Late distreisei seem to be already for gotten: simulation revives, and anticipated success wakens enterprise. Our wharfs are covered with goods ; our vessels laden with the produce of native industry ; and whilst the flag of trade waves unfurled in all our harbours, and courts the western breeze, hope and confidence Levisit the 'waits of our mauufacturers, labour resumes its activity, and regains its price. `This is a pleasing scene, which no eye can behold without brightening with sympathetic joy : but which cool reflec tion desuoils of all its charms. For should not the Repeal of the Orders in Council yield its expected fruit, the ex ultation and the belief artfully impressed on the popular mind, that all the distres ' es of the community Were pro duced by, and will vanish with, our retaliatory measures, being totally disappointed, will create deeper dejection, or spread wider discontent. Notwithstanding the sincerity of our wishes to the contrary, we cannot conceal our appre hension that this measure, adopted in the pure.spirit of con ciliation, will have only a temporary effect, and that the present high expectations of the people will prove barren of future advantage. We ground this opinion on the firm evviction that the Orders in Council were not the cause of our commercial difficulties and losses, and that consequettly their repeal, although it opens for a short time a channe' of trade closed to us for some years, and may lead to a new prospect of an accommodation with America, if the spirit of French intrigue, which rules her councils, hate not already hurried her into a declaration r.,;* war, will not permanently relieve the sufferings of our manufacturing population. We only intend to curb extravagant expectations, not to extinguish hope. Disappointment has a more bitter taste than restraint ; we wish, by the timely use of the latter, to moderate, if not to avoid the former. The Orders in Council had long, and most unjustly been unpopular. A measure adopted for the protection of our trade was represented as more destructive to it than the Decrees of the enemy. This was in itself incredible, for its Projectors were• neither traitors, who profited by the dis tresses of the country, nor so blind as to stab her bosom whilst fighting in her defence. They weie men possessed of sources of information to which their situation in the .Volt V. No, CCXXXV. . 1 , 4 Stitt : gave them access, and which were only opened to a few. They perceived the sudden and powerful effect which the blockading Decree of France ha& through the pusilia • nimity of the Americans, on cur trade. The vessels of the United States, obedient to the Imperial mandate, flocked to . the Continent, and deserted our coasts. The urinal trade with America, and throUgh American bottoms with the Continent, was thus at once annihilated, unless some met:rosi was taken to recall it to our shores. From thi; necessity imposed upon us, first by the subserviency of the Americans to France, and secondly, by the law of self-defence, sprung our Orders in Conned, which declared every Atnerica , t vessel that should go France without first coming to England, lawful prize. Had we had no cruisers at sea to enforce till-, regulation, the' Continent alone would have been Visited by transatlantic trader*, as affording them a better market ; but the diffieulty of avoiding our shipr, and the want of resolution to insist °a the restoration of their neutral tights by NAPO LEON, placed the Amerians in a sitoation peculiarly diffi cult, from which they attempted to emerge by a measure which nearly completed their ruin, as for several years, it deprived them of all commercial intercourse With the rest of the world. This act of imbecility on their part, instead of preying injurious to us, promoted our interests, and whilst our Orders in Council kept them away from all their com mercial haunts in Europe, we regained that trade to the, Continent which they possessed before, that of the Mediter ranean and the Baltic, and whereas they used to convey Chiefly the produce of the French colonies, we only sold that of our own, which notwithstanding the burning Decrees of France, found its way through every European kingdom. We at the same time engrossed their .trade to South Ame rica, and the ascendancy which we thus once more obtained over the carriers of the World, has struck a blow to their prosp;lity from .which it will be many years before they cart recover. Had America acted justly in the first instance ; had she not displayed a most servile subserviency to France, and instead of siding with the Aggressor had she not adopted hostile measures against us for a necessary act of self defence on our part; had she continued her trade with us as long as we did not go beyond the necessity of the cese, she would have followed the dictates both of ;n4ice and of her own interest. But, as an eloquent writer says', ‘. that she should turn the whole of her vengeance upon w, and not on France, was not to be calculated upon. It was an injustice too glaring, a policy so completely at vat iattee with emi tt riion honesty, with the neutral character, and eves the real terests of the United States, that it could riot be cqntern• plated, aqd the only legitimate. conclusion, therefore, i;, that as the Orders hi Council were politic :Lod ncce:,-any meat . "J Pitici(9d.