The National Register. — London, England, 1808-12-25 00:00:00

DEC. 25. as anac.—l have the honour to inform you that the Coaven- I tion which was yesterd a y concluded„ has been ratified by his Excellency Gen. Count Iluxbow vdea, and 1 shall Dow transmii it to Gaunt Pgteullt in in order that the exchange of the Ratiti• cation may be effected with regard to the Armistice in question, I have his Excellenc'y's command to acquaint you, that 3lthow.b he must destroy the conclusion o f a formal Armisiice, yet he en gages his word of honour that he will not recommence hostile operations against the Swedish army before the expiration of f wirteen days after the Swedish army shall have taken np the po sition stipulated in the above Convention, in hopes that no ope ration, w ill be commeneed I n your part within the said time. have the honour, Ike. Brakestad, the 28-49 Nov. 1808. Y Cutrvr ItAmitesicr. STATE PAVERS. GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA. LETTER FROM MR. CANNING TO MR. PINKNEY. Foreign Office, Sept, $3, 11308. The Undersigned, his Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, had the honour to receive the official letter addressed to him by Mr. Pinkney, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States, respecting the Orders in Council, issued by his Majesty on the Ith of January and 11th November lSOT.—lie has laid that letter before the king, and he is commanded to assure Mr. Pinkney that the answer to the proposal which Mr. Pinknev was instructed to bring forward, has been deferred only in the hope that the renewed application which was understood to be recently made by the Government of the United States to that of France, might, in the new state of things which has arisen in Europe, have met with such a reception in France as would have rendered the compliance of his Majesty with that proposal consistent as lunch with his Majesty's own dignity, and with the interests of his people, as it would have been with his Mgjesty's disposition towards the United States. Unhappily there is now no longer any reason to believe that such a hope is likely to he realised; and the undersigned is therefore commanded to com municate to Mr. Pinkney the decision which, under the circum stances as they stand, his Majesty feels himself compelled, how ever unwillingly, to adopt. The mitigated measure of retaliation annonnced by his Majesty in the Order in Council of the 7th January, and the further ex tension of that measure (an extension in operation but not in principle) by the Orders in Council of November, are founded (as has been already repeatedly avowed by his Majesty) on the " unquestionable right of his Majesty to retort upon the enemy the evils of his own injustice;' and upon the consideration that if third parties incidentally suffered by these retaliatory mea sures," they were to seek their redress from the Power by whore original aggression that retaliation was occasioned," His Majesty sees nothing in the embargo laid on by the Presi dent of the United States of America, which varies this original and simple state of the question. If considered as a measure of impartial hostility against both Belligerents, the embargo appears to his Majesty to have been amuifestly unjust, as, according to every principle of justice, that redress ought to have been first sought from the party ori ginating the wrong. And his Majesty cannot consent to buy off that hostility which America ought not to haveextended to him, at the expellee of a concession made not to America, but to France. If, as it has more generally been represented by the Governs meat of the United States, the embargo is only to be considered as an innocent municipal regulation which affects none but the United States themselves, and with which no foreign State has any concern; vie w ed in this light, his Majesty does not conceive that he has the right or the pretension to make any complaint of it, and he has made none. But in this light there appears not only no reciprocity, but no assignable relation between the re peal by the United States of a measure of voluntary selfsrestric time and the surrender by his hlAjesty Obis right of retaliation against his enemies. The Government of the United States is now to he informed that the Berlin Decree of November2l, 1808, was the practical commencement of an attempt not merely to check or Impair the prosperity of Grea t Brit a i q , b u t u tterly to nonihilate her poli tith:t n h ri t l i trx t ist i e s tenacte, m through the rain of her commercial prosperity ; have been attem pt almost the Powers of the European Con tinent compelled, More or lea, to co-operate; and ttlu . the American embargo, though most assuredly not intended t o that end (for America can hate no real interest in the subver tem of the British Power, and her Rulers arc t oo ertitables4ll on rit ; or( the tOth be the Mlle likh It tut stri they P Or arti- :said l erals !d to- Gen. UN. %Mier eh the Ibnrg, ration hosti- troop' THE NATIONAL REGISTER. - , u act from any impulse against the real interests of their coun try), but by some unfortuante concurrence of circumstances, without any hostile intention, the American embargo did come In aid of " the Blockade of the European Cootinent," precisely at the very moment w hen, if that hlockade could hate succeeded it all, this interposition of the Ameriran Gut ermnent would lost effectually have contributed to its sucoesit. To this universal coutbiaat ion b is Majesty has opposed a sera. perate but a determined retaliation upon the enemy, trusting that a firm resistance would defeat this project, but knowing that the smallest concession would infallibly encourage a perse veranee io it. The struggle has been viewed by other Powers not without an apprehension that it might be fatal to this country. The British Government has not disguised from itself that the trial of such an experiment might be arduous and long, thouth it has !weer doubted of the final issue. But if that issue, such as the British Government confidently anticipated, has providentially arrived much sooner than could have been hoped ; if " the blockade of the Continent," as ii has been triumphantly styled by the enemy, is raised even before it had been well es tablished; and if that system, of which extent and continuity were the vital principles, is broken up into fragments utterly 'armless and contemptible : it is nevertheless important in the highest degree to the reputation of this country (a reputation w hich constitutes great part of her power). that this disappointment of the hopes of her enemies should not have been purchased by any cotter's* ; that not a doubt should remain to distant times of her determination, and of her ability to have contiuned her resistance ; and that no step which could eveu mistakenly he construed into concession should be taken on her part, while the smallest link of the confederacy remains undissolved; or while it can be a question whether the plan devii.ed for her destructit.n has or has nut either com pletely failed, or been unequivocally :dewclaw:rt. These considerations compel his Majesty to adhere to the principles on which the Orders in Council of the 'it li of January and the 11th of November are fouteled, so long as France adheres to that system by which his Majesty's retaliatory measures were occasioned and justified. It is not improbable. indeed, that some alterations may he made in the Orders in Council, as they are at present framed ; alterations calculated not to abate their spi it or impair their principle, but to adapt them more exactly to the different state of things which has fortunately grown up in Europe, and to combine all practicable relief to neutrals, with a more severe pressure upon the enemy. But of alterations to be made with this view only, it would he uncandid to take any advantage in the present discussion : however, it might be hoped, that in their principal effect, they might prove beneficial to America, provided the operation of the embargo were nut to prevent her from reaping that benefit. It remains for the undersigned to take notice of the last para graph of Mr Pinkney's letter. There cannot exist on the part of Mr. Pinkney a stronger wish than there does ou that of tile undersigned, and of the British Government, for the adjustmeist of all the differences subsisting between the two countries. His Majesty has no other disposition than to cultivate the most friendly intercourse with the Uuited States. The undersigned is persuaded, that Mr. Pliancy would be one of the last to imagine, what is often idly asserted, that the de pression of any other country is necessary or serviceable to the prosperity of this. The prosperity of America is essentially the prosperity of Great Britain; and the strength and power of Great Britain are not fur herself only, but for the whole workl. When those adjustments shall take place, to which, though ult. fortunately not practicable nt this moment, nor under the con ditions prescribed by Mr. Pinkney, the undersigned, oeverthe ' Isss, confidently look forward, it will perhaps be no insecure pledge for the continuance of the good understaielieg between these two countries, that they will have learnt duly to appre ciate each other's friendship ; and that it will not hereafter be imputed to Great Britain, either on the one hand that she en vies American industry as prejudicial to British commerce, or on the other hand, that she is compelled to court an intercourse with America, as absolutely necessary to her owu e xistence. His Majesty would not hesitate to coutribute, iu an manner in his power, to res tore to the commerce of the United State;, its wonted activity; and if it were possible to make arty sacri lice for the repeal of the embargo, without appearing to dt►. precate it as a measure of hostility, he would gladly have fa. cilitated its removal as a measure of inconvenient restriction upon the American people. Thiranderaigaedis commanded, in conclusion, to observe, that '1