Norfolk gazette and publick ledger (Norfolk [Va.]), 1808-04-07 00:00:00

DOCUMENTS
Accompanying the Message of the President of the 22d March, relative to the Chesapeake.
(CONCLUDED.)
FROM MR. CANNING.
Foreign Office, Oct. 22, 1807.
SIR,
Having seen in the American newspapers, an official article (of which I have the honour to inclose a copy) prohibiting all intercourse between his majesty's ships of war universally: I have the honour to request that you will have the goodness to inform me, whether this prohibition will extend to the ship of war, in which a minister accredited from his majesty, and charged with a mission to the American government, shall arrive in any of the ports of the United States? Or whether you, or Mr. Pinkney can undertake to furnish Mr. Rose with such documents, as shall ensure his admission into the American ports, and a reception therein, suitable to the character with which he is invested? I have the honour to be, with great consideration, sir, your most obedient humble servant.
(Signed) GEORGE CANNING.
James Monroe, esq. &c. &c. &c.
To MR. CANNING.
Portland Place, Oct. 23, 1807.
SIR,
I have the honour to state in reply to your letter of yesterday, that the case to which you alluded, is specially provided for by the proclamation of the president. You will observe, on a view of that document, that an exception is made, from the prohibition it contains on other vessels, in favour of such ships of his majesty as may enter the ports of the United States with dispatches from his majesty's government. Had the case of a publick minister, employed in a special mission to my government, not been comprised in that exception, as it clearly is, I have no hesitation in stating that he would be received without delay, at any port at which he might arrive. I have the honour to add, that Mr. Pinkney and myself will be happy to give to his majesty's minister every facility in our power, to secure him the reception at the port of his destination which is due to his publick character, and promote his speedy arrival at the seat of the government of the United States.
I have the honour to be, with great consideration, &c.
(Signed) JAMES MONROE.
The Rt. Hon. George Canning, &c. &c.
FROM MR. CANNING.
Foreign Office, October 23d, 1807.
Italy past 10, P. M.
SIR,
I have to acknowledge the honour of your answer to my letter of yesterday evening. It appears to me to be so important to have a clear understanding on the subject, to which that letter refers, that I cannot forbear requesting you to have the goodness to call at the foreign office to-morrow at two o'clock, if that hour should suit your convenience.
I have the honour to be with great consideration, sir, your most obedient humble servant.
(Signed) GEORGE CANNING.
James Monroe, esq. &c. &c. &c.
London, Oct. 28, 1807.
SIR,
I have the honour to send you a copy of a correspondence with Mr. Canning, touching a difficulty, which he supposed Mr. Rose might experience in entering the bay of Chesapeake, in consequence of the proclamation of the president. In the interview invited by his last note, I expressed my surprise, that any doubt should exist on the subject of it, and assured him, that Mr. Pinkney and myself would be responsible for Mr. Rose's prompt admission into our harbours, and arrival at Washington, without suffering the slightest molestation; on the contrary, that he should receive every attention and facility on the route which he might require. I told him, that no document from us would be necessary for that purpose; but that to put the question beyond all doubt, we would give him a passport, which should go to every object in detail, and that we would also give him letters of introduction to the governors of Maryland and Virginia, the states through which he would pass, to be taken advantage of, if he found that they would be useful.—With this explanation and arrangement, Mr. Canning was satisfied.
I also send you a copy of a letter from Mr. Rose, senior, and my answer, relative to the mission of his son to the United States. Although Mr. Rose's letter is unofficial, I have thought it proper, in consideration of his near connection with the minister, and station in the government, to communicate it.
I leave this to-morrow, to meet in the Channel the Augustus, the ship in which I propose to sail with my family to the United States. She has left this port, and is on her way to Portsmouth, where she will receive us. Mr. Rose, by going in a frigate, will most probably arrive before me, and even before Dr. Bullus. It is important that you should possess all the information which I can give respecting the business in which I have been lately engaged with Mr. Canning, and of Mr. Rose's mission, at the moment of his arrival. I have therefore thought it advisable to commit to him this letter, and a copy of my correspondence with Mr. Canning, as Mr. Pinkney and I have done our joint dispatch. I expect to be at sea in a week from this date, and shall proceed to Washington immediately after my arrival in the United States, to communicate to you such further information as I may have relative to the important concerns of our country in which I have been employed. I have the honour to be with great respect, &c.
(Signed) JAMES MONROE.
James Madison, Esq. Secretary of State.
Correspondence between Mr. Madison and Mr. Rose. WASHINGTON, January 26, 1808.
SIR,
Having had the honour to state to you, that I am expressly precluded by my instructions from entering upon any negotiation for the adjustment of the differences arising from the encounter of his majesty's ship Leopard, and the frigate of the United States, the Chesapeake, as long as the proclamation of the president of the United States, of the 2d July, 1807, shall be in force, I beg leave to offer you such farther explanation of the nature of that condition, as appears to me calculated to place the motives under which it has been enjoined to me thus to bring it forward in their true light.
In whatever spirit that instrument was issued, it is sufficiently obvious, that it has been productive of considerable prejudice to his majesty's interests, as confided to his military and other servants in the United States; to the honour of his flag, and to the privileges of his ministers accredited to the American government. From the operation of this proclamation, have unavoidably resulted effects of retaliation and self-assumed redress which might be held to affect materially the question of the reparation due to the United States, especially inasmuch as its execution has been persevered in after the knowledge of his majesty's early, unequivocal, and unsolicited disavowal of the unauthorized act of admiral Berkeley, his disclaimer of the pretension exhibited by that officer to search the national ships of a friendly power for the deserters, and the assurances of prompt and effectual reparation; all communicated without loss of time, to the minister of the United States in London, so as not to leave a doubt as to his majesty's just and amicable intentions.—But his majesty, making every allowance for the irritation which was excited, and the misapprehensions which existed, has authorized me to proceed in the negotiation upon the sole discontinuance of measures of so inimical a tendency.
You are aware, sir, that any delay which may have arisen in the adjustment of the present difference, is not imputable to an intention of procrastination on the part of his majesty's government; on the contrary, its anxiety to terminate as expediously as possible the discussion of a matter so interesting to both nations has been evinced by the communication made by Mr. Secretary Canning, to Mr. Monroe, before that minister of the United States was even informed of the encounter; and now by the promptitude with which it has dispatched a special mission to this country for that express purpose.
I can have no difficulty in stating anew to you, with respect to the provisions of my instructions, calculated as they are to insure an honourable adjustment of the important point in question, and to remove the impressions which the late cause of difference may have excited in the minds of this nation, that I am authorised to express my conviction, that they are such as will enable me to terminate the negotiation amicably and satisfactorily.
Having learnt from you, sir, that it is solely as a measure of precaution, that the provisions of the proclamation are now enforced, I must persuade myself that a due consideration of his majesty's conduct in this transaction, will remove as well any misapprehensions which may have been entertained respecting his majesty's dispositions towards the United States and the grounds upon which that enforcement rests, and the more so, as it has long been a matter of notoriety, that the orders, issued to the officers of his majesty's navy, in his proclamation of the 16th Oct. 1807, afford ample security that no attempt can again be made to assert a pretension, which his majesty from the first disavowed.
I may add, that if his majesty has not commanded me to enter into the discussion of those other causes of complaint, stated to arise from the conduct of his naval commanders in these seas, prior to the encounter of the Leopard and the Chesapeake, it was because it had been deemed improper to mingle them, whatever may be their merits, with the present matter, so much more interesting and important in its nature; an opinion, originally and distinctly expressed by Mr. Monroe, and assented to by Mr. Canning. But if, upon this more recent and more weighty matter of discussion, upon which the proclamation mainly and materially rests, his majesty's amicable intentions are unequivocally evinced, it is sufficiently clear, that no hostile disposition can be supposed to exist on his part; nor can any views be attributed to his government, such as, requiring to be counteracted by measures of precaution, could be deduced from transactions which preceded that encounter.
In offering these elucidations, I should observe, that the views in which I have brought forward the preliminary, which I have specified, is neither as to demand concession, or redress, as for a wrong committed: into such, the claim to a discontinuance of hostile provisions cannot be construed; but it is simply to require a cessation of enactments injurious in their effects, and which, if persisted in, especially after these explanations, must evince a spirit of hostility, under which his majesty could not authorise the prosecution of the present negotiation, either consistently with his own honour, or with any well founded expectation of the renewal or duration of that good understanding between the two countries, which it is equally the interest of both to foster, and to ameliorate.
I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your obedient and most humble servant, (Signed) G. H. ROSE.
(COPY.)
DEPARTMENT OF STATE.
March 5, 1808.
SIR—I have had the honour to receive and lay before the President, your letter of the 26th Janua-
ry, in which you state that you are "expressly precluded by your instructions from entering upon any negotiations for the adjustment of the differences arising from the encounter of his Britannick majesty's ship the Leopard and a frigate of the United States the Chesapeake, as long as the proclamation of the president of the 2d July, 1807, shall be in force."
This demand, sir, might justly suggest the simple answer, that before the proclamation of the president could become a subject of consideration, satisfaction should be made for the acknowledged aggression which preceded it. This is evidently agreeable to the order of reason, and, it may be added, to the order of usage as maintained by Great Britain, whenever in analogous cases, she has been the complaining party.
But as you have suljoined to the preliminary demand, certain explanations, with a view doubtless less to obviate such an answer, it will best accord with the candour of the president, to meet them with such a review of the whole subject as will present the solid grounds on which he regards such a demand as inadmissible.
I begin with the occurrences from which the proclamation of July 2d resulted. These are in general terms referred to by the instrument itself. A more particular notice of the most important of them, will here be in place.
Passing over, then, the habitual but minor irregularities of his Britannick majesty's ships of war, in making the hospitalities of our ports subservient to the annoyance of our trade, both outward and inward, a practice not only contrary to the principles of publick law, but expressly contrary to British ordinances enforced during maritime wars to which she bore a neutral relation, I am constrained, unwelcome as the task is, to call your attention to the following more prominent instances.
In the summer of the year 1804, the British frigate the Cambrian, with other cruisers in company, entered the harbour of New-York. The commander, Capt. Bradley, in violation of the port laws relating both to health and revenue, caused a merchant vessel just arrived, and confessedly within the limits and under the authority of the United States, to be boarded by persons under his command, who after resisting the officers of the port in the legal exercise of their functions, actually impressed and carried off a number of seamen and passengers into the service of the ships of war. On an appeal to the voluntary respect for the laws, he first failed to give up the offender to justice, and finally repelled the officer charged with the regular process for the purpose.
This procedure was not only a flagrant insult to the sovereignty of the nation, but an infraction of its neutrality also, which did not permit a belligerent ship thus to augment its force within the neutral territory.
To finish the scene, this commander went so far as to declare, in an official letter to the minister plenipotentiary of his Britannick majesty, and by him communicated to this government, that he considered his ship, whilst lying in the harbor of New-York, as having dominion around her, within the distance of her buoys.
All these circumstances were duly made known to the British government, in just expectation of honorable reparation. None has ever been offered.—Capt. Bradley was advanced from his frigate to the command of a ship of the line.
At a subsequent period several British frigates under the command of capt. Whitby, of the Leader, pursuing the practice of vexing the inward and outward trade of our ports, and hovering for that purpose about the entrance of that of New-York, closed a series of irregularities, with an attempt to arrest a coasting vessel, on board of which an American citizen was killed by a cannon ball which entered the vessel whilst within less than a mile from the shore.
The blood of a citizen thus murdered, in a trade from one to another port of his own country, and within the sanctuary of its territorial jurisdiction, could not fail to arouse the sensibility of the public, and to make a solemn appeal to the justice of the British government. The case was presented moreover to that government by this, in the accent which it required; and with due confidence that the offender would receive the exemplary punishment which he deserved. That there might be no failure of legal proof of a fact sufficiently notorious of itself, unexceptionable witnesses to establish it were sent to Great Britain at the expense of the United States.
Captain Whitby was notwithstanding honorably acquitted; no animadversion took place on any other officer belonging to the squadron; nor has any apology or explanation been made since the trial was over, as a conciliatory offering to the disappointment of this country at such a result.
A case of another character occurred in the month of September, 1806. The Impetueux, a French ship of 74 guns, when aground within a few hundred yards of the shore of North Carolina, and therefore visibly within the territorial jurisdiction and hospitable protection of the United States, was fired upon, boarded and burnt, form three British ships of war, under the command of capt. Douglas. Having completed this outrage on the sovereignty and neutrality of the United States, the British commander felt no scruple in proceeding thence into the waters near Norfolk, nor in the midst of the hospitalities enjoyed by him, to add to what had passed, a refusal to discharge from his ships, impressed citizens of the United States not to be such, on the plea that the government of the United States had refused to surrender to the demand of admiral Berkeley, certain seamen alleged to be British deserters; a demand which it is well understood your government disclaims any right to make.
It would be superfluous to dwell on the features
which mark this aggravated insult. But I must be permitted to remind you, that in so serious a light was a similar violation of neutral territory, by the destruction of certain French ships on the coast of Portugal, by a British squadron under the command of admiral Boscawen, regarded by the court of Great Britain, that a minister extraordinary was despatched for the express purpose of expiating the aggressions on the sovereignty of a friendly power.
Lastly presents itself, the attack by the British ship of war Leopard, on the American frigate Chesapeake; a case too familiar in all its circumstances to need a recital of any part of them. It is sufficient to remark that the conclusive evidence which this event added to that which had preceded, of the uncontrolled excesses of the British naval commanders, in insulting our sovereignty, and abusing our hospitality, determined the President to extend to all British armed ships, the precaution heretofore applied to a few by name, of interdicting to them the use and privileges of our harbours and waters.
This was done by his proclamation of July 2, 1807, referring to the series of occurrences, ending with the aggression on the frigate Chesapeake, as the considerations requiring it. And if the apprehensions from the licentious spirit of the British naval commanders, thus developed and uncontrolled, which led to this measure of precaution, could need other justification than was afforded by what had passed, it would be amply found in the subsequent conduct of the ships under the command of the same captain Douglas.
This officer, neither admonished by reflection on the crisis produced by the attack on the Chesapeake, nor controlled by respect for the law of nations, or the laws of the land, did not cease within our waters to bring to, by firing at vessels pursuing their regular course of trade; and in the same spirit which had displayed itself in the recent outrage committed on the American frigate, he not only indulged himself in hostile threats, and indications of a hostile approach to Norfolk, but actually obstructed our citizens in the ordinary communication between that and neighbouring places. His proceedings constituted in fact, a blockade of the port, and as real an invasion of the country, according to the extent of his force, as if troops had been debarked, and the town besieged on the land side.
Was it possible for the chief magistrate of a nation, who felt for its rights and its honour, to do less than interpose some measure of precaution at least against the repetition of enormities which had been so long uncontrolled, by the government whose officers had committed them, and which had at last taken the exorbitant shape of hostility and of insult seen in the attack on the Chesapeake? Candour will pronounce that less could not be done; and it will as reasonably admit that the proclamation comprising that measure, could not have breathed a more temperate spirit, nor spoken in a more becoming tone. How far it has received from those whose instructions it prohibited, the respect due to the national authority, or been made the occasion of new indignities, needs no explanation.
The president having interposed this precautionary interdict, lost no time in instructing the minister plenipotentiary of the United States to represent to the British government the signal aggression which had been committed on their sovereignty and their flag, and to require the satisfaction due for it; including the expectation, that his Britannick majesty would at once perceive it to be the truest magnanimity, as well as the strictest justice, to offer that prompt and full expiation of an acknowledged wrong, which would re-establish and improve both in fact and in feeling, the state of things which it had violated.
This expectation was considered as not only honourable to the sentiments of his majesty, but was supported by known examples, in which, being the complaining party, he required and obtained, a precise replacement of things, in every practicable circumstance, in their pre-existing situation.
Thus in the year 1764, Bermudians and other British subjects, who had according to annual custom, taken possession of Turks Island for the season of making salt, having been forcibly removed with their vessels and effects by a French detachment from the island of St. Domingo, to which Turks Island was alleged to be an appurtenance, the British ambassador at Paris, in pursuance of instructions from his government, demanded, as a satisfaction for the violence committed, that the proceedings should be disavowed, the intention of acquiring Turks Island disclaimed, orders given for the immediate abandonment of it on the part of the French, every thing restored to the condition in which it was at the time of the aggression, and reparation made of the damages which any British subjects should be found to have sustained, according to an estimation to be settled between the governors of St. Domingo and Jamaica. A compliance with the whole of this demand was the result.
Again: In the year 1789, certain English merchants having opened a trade at Nootka Sound, on the North-West coast of America, and attempted a settlement at that place, the Spaniards who had long claimed that part of the world as their exclusive property, dispatched a frigate from Mexico, which captured two English vessels engaged in the trade, and broke up the settlement on the coast.—The Spanish government was the first to complain, in this case, of the intrusions committed by the British merchants. The British government, however, demanded that the vessels taken by the Spanish frigate should be restored and adequate satisfaction granted, previous to any other discussion.
This demand prevailed; the Spanish government agreeing to make full restitution of the captured vessels, and to indemnify the parties interested in them for the losses sustained. They restored also

the buildings and tracts of land of which the British subjects had been dispossessed. The British, however, soon gave a proof of the little value they set on the possession, by a voluntary dislocation under which it has since remained.
The case which will be noted last, though of a date prior to the case of Nootka Sound, is that of Falkland's Islands. These islands lie about one hundred leagues eastward of the Straits of Magellan. The title of them had been a subject of controversy among several of the maritime nations of Europe. From the position of the islands and other circumstances, the pretensions of Spain bore an advantageous comparison with those of her competitors. In the year 1770, the British took possession of Port Egmont in one of the islands, the Spaniards being at the time in possession of another part, and protesting against a settlement by the British. The protest being without effect, ships and troops were sent from Buenos Ayres by the governor of that place, which forcibly dispossessed and drove off the British settlers.
The British government looked entirely to the dispossession by force, demanded as a specific condition of preserving harmony between the two courts, not only the disavowal of the Spanish proceedings, but that the affairs of the settlement should be immediately restored to the precise state in which they were previous to the act of dispossession. The Spanish government made some difficulties; requiring particularly a disavowal, on the part of Great Britain, of the conduct of her officer at Falkland's islands, which it was alleged, gave occasion to steps taken by the Spanish governor; and proposed an adjustment by mutual stipulations in the ordinary form.
The reply was, that the moderation of his Britannick majesty having limited his demand to the smallest reparation he could accept for the injury done, nothing was left for discussion but the mode of carrying the disavowal and restitution into execution; reparation losing its value if it be conditional, and to be obtained by any stipulation whatever from the party injured.
The Spanish government yielded. The violent proceedings of its officers were disavowed. The fort, the port, and every thing else were agreed to be immediately restored to the precise situation which had been disturbed; and duplicates of orders issued for the purpose to the Spanish officers, were delivered into the hands of one of the British principal secretaries of state. Here again it is to be remarked, that satisfaction having been made for the forcible dispossession, the islands but their importance in the eyes of the British government, were in a short time finally evacuated, and Port Egmont remains with every other part of them in the hands of Spain.
Could stronger pledges have been given, than are here found, that an honourable and instant reparation would be made in a case, differing no otherwise from those recited, than as it furnished to the same monarch of a great nation, an opportunity to prove that adhering always to the same immutable principle, he was as ready to do right to others, as to require it for himself.
Returning to the instructions given to the minister plenipotentiary of the United States at London, I am to observe that the President thought it just and expedient to insert, as a necessary ingredient in the adjustment of the outrage committed on the American frigate, a security against the future practice of British naval commanders, impressing from merchant vessels of the United States on the high seas, such of their crews as they might undertake to denominate British subjects.
To this association of the two subjects, the president was determined, 1st, by his regarding both as resting on kindred principles, the immunity of private ships, with the known exceptions made by the law of nations, being as well established as that of public ships; and there being no pretext for including in these exceptions the impressment (if it could be freed from its enormous and notorious abuses) of the subjects of a belligerent, by the officers of that belligerent. The rights of a belligerent against the ships of a neutral nation, accrue merely from the relation of the neutral to the other belligerent as in conveying to him contraband of war, or in supplying a blockaded port.
The claim of a belligerent to search for and seize on board neutral vessels on the high seas, persons under his allegiance, does not therefore rest on any belligerent right under the law of nations, but on a prerogative derived from municipal law; and involves the extravagant supposition, that one nation has a right to execute at all times and in all cases, its municipal laws and regulations, on board the ships of another nation, not being within its territorial limits.
The president was led to the same determination, 2dly, by his desire of converting a particular incident, into an occasion for removing another and more extensive source of danger to the harmony of the two countries: and 3dly, by his persuasion that the liberality of the propositions authorized with this view, would not fail to induce the ready concurrence of his Britannick majesty; and that the more extensive source of irritation and perplexity being removed, a satisfactory adjustment of the particular incident would be the less difficult. The president still thinks that such would have been the tendency of the mode for which he had provided; and he cannot therefore but regret that the door was shut against the experiment, by the peremptory refusal of Mr. Canning to admit it into discussion, even in the most informal manner, as was suggested by Mr. Monroe.
The president felt the greater regret, as the step he had taken towards a more enlarged and lasting accommodation became thus a bar to the adjustment of the particular and recent aggression which had been committed against the United States. He found however an alleviation, in the signified purpose of his Britannick majesty, to charge with this adjustment a special mission to the United States, which, restricted as it was, seemed to indicate a disposition from which a liberal and conciliatory arrangement of one great object at least might be confidently expected.
In this confidence, your arrival was awaited with every friendly solicitude; and our first interview having opened the way, by an acquiescence in the separation of the two cases insisted on by his Britannick majesty, notwithstanding the strong ground on which they had been united by the president, it was not to be doubted that a tender of the satisfaction claimed by the United States, for a distinguished and an acknowledged insult, by one of his officers, would immediately follow.
It was not, therefore, without a very painful sur-
prize, that the error of this expectation was discovered. Instead of the satisfaction due from the original aggression, it was announced that the first step towards an adjustment must proceed from the party injured; and your letter now before me, formally repeats, that as long as the proclamation of the president, which issued on the 2d July, 1807, shall be in force, it will be an insuperable obstacle to a negotiation, even on the subject of the aggression which preceded it; in other words, that the proclamation must be put out of force, before an adjustment of the aggression can be taken into discussion.
In explaining the grounds of this extraordinary demand, it is alleged to be supported by the consideration that the proceeding and pretension of the offending officer has been disavowed: that the general assurances are given of a disposition and intention in his Britannick majesty to make satisfaction: that a special minister was dispatched with promptitude for the purpose of carrying into effect this disposition; and that you have a personal conviction that the particular terms, which you are not at liberty previously to disclose, will be deemed by the United States satisfactory.
With respect to the disavowal, it would be unjust not to regard it as a proof of candour and amity towards the United States, and as some presage of the voluntary reparation which it implied to be due. But the disavowal can be the less confounded with the reparation itself; since it was sufficiently required by the respect which Great-Britain owed to her own honour; it being impossible that an enlightened government, had hostility been meditated, would have commenced it in such a manner, and in the midst of existing professions of peace and friendship. She owed it also to consistency with a disavowal on a former occasion, in which the pretension had been enforced by a British squadron, against the sloop of war Baltimore, belonging to the United States; and finally to the interest which Great-Britain has, more than any other nation, in disclaiming a principle which would expose her superior number of ships of war, to so many indignities from inferior navies.
As little can the general assurances that reparation would be made, claim a return which could properly follow the actual reparation only. They cannot amount to more than a disposition, or at most a promise, to do what the aggressor may deem a fulfilment of his obligation. They do not prove even a disposition to do what may be satisfactory to the injured party, who cannot have less than an equal right to decide on the sufficiency of the redress.
In dispatching a special minister for the purpose of adjusting the difference, the United States ought cheerfully to acknowledge all the proof it affords on the part of his Britannick majesty, of his pacific views towards them, and of his prospect for their friendship. But whilst they could not under any circumstances, allow the measure more than a certain participation in an honourable reparation it is to be recollected that the avowed and primary object of the mission was to substitute for the more extended adjustment proposed by the United States, at London, a separation of the subject, as preferred by his Britannick majesty, and you well know, sir, how fully this object was accomplished.
With respect to the personal conviction which you have expressed, that the terms which you decline to disclose, would be satisfactory to the United States it is incumbent on me to observe, that with the highest respect for your judgement, and the most perfect confidence in your sincerity, an insuperable objection manifestly lies, to the acceptance of a personal and unexplained opinion, in place of a disclosure, which would enable this government to exercise its own judgement, in a case affecting so essentially its honour and its rights. Such a course of proceeding would be without example; and there can be no hazard in saying that one will never be afforded by a government which respects itself as much as yours justly does; and therefore can never be reasonably expected from one which respects itself as much as this has a right to do.
I forbear, sir, to enlarge on the intrinsic incongruity of the expedient proposed. But I must be allowed to remark, as an additional admonition of the singular and mortifying perplexity in which a compliance might involve the president, that there are in the letter of Mr. Canning, communicating to Mr. Monroe the special mission to the United States pregnant indications that other questions and conditions may have been contemplated, which would be found utterly irreconcilable with the sentiments of this nation.
If neither any nor all these considerations can sustain the preliminary demand made in your communication, it remains to be seen whether such a demand rests with greater advantage on the more precise ground on which you finally seem to place it.
The proclamation is considered as a hostile measure, and a discontinuance of it, as due to the discontinuance of the aggression which led to it.
It has been sufficiently shown that the proclamation, as appears on the face of it, was produced by a train of occurrences terminating in the attack on the American frigate, and not by this last alone. To a demand, therefore, that the proclamation be revoked, it would be perfectly fair to oppose a demand that redress be first given for the numerous irregularities which preceded the aggression on the American frigate, as well as for this particular aggression, and that effectual controul be interposed against repetitions of them. And as no such redress has been given for the past, notwithstanding the lapse of time which has taken place, nor any such security for the future, notwithstanding the undiminished reasonableness of it, it follows, that a continuance of the proclamation would be consistent with an entire discontinuance of one only of the occurrences from which it proceeded.
But it is not necessary to avail the argument of this view of the case, although of itself entirely conclusive. Had the proclamation been founded on the single aggression committed on the Chesapeake, and were it admitted that the discontinuance of that aggression merely, gave a claim to the discontinuance of the proclamation, the claim would be defeated, by the incontestable fact, that that aggression has not been discontinued. It has never ceased to exist; and is in existence at this moment. Need I remind you, sir, that the seizure and asportation of the seamen belonging to the crew of the Chesapeake entered into the very essence of that aggression; that with an exception of the victim to a trial, forbidden by the most solemn considera-
tions, and greatly aggravating the guilt of its author, the seamen in question are still retained, and consequently that the aggression, if in no other respect, is by that act alone continued and in force? If the views which have been taken of the subject have the justness which they claim, they will have shown that on no ground whatever can an annulment of the proclamation of July 2d, be reasonably required, as a preliminary to the negotiation with which you are charged. On the contrary, it clearly results, from a recurrence to the causes and object of the proclamation, that, as was at first intimated, the strongest sanctions of Great Britain herself, would support the demand, that previous to a discussion of the proclamation, due satisfaction should be made to the United States; that this satisfaction ought to extend to all the wrongs which preceded and produced that act; and that even limiting the merits of the question to the single relation of the proclamation to the wrong committed in the attack on the American frigate, and deciding the question on the principle that a discontinuance of the latter required of right a discontinuance of the former, nothing appears that does not leave such a preliminary destitute of every foundation which could be assumed for it.
With a right to draw this conclusion, the president might have instructed me to close this communication, with the reply stated in the beginning of it; and perhaps in taking this course, he would only have consulted a sensibility, to which most governments would, in such a case, have yielded. But adhering to the moderation by which he has been invariably guided, and anxious to rescue the two nations from the circumstances, under which an abortive issue to your mission necessarily places them, he has authorised me, in the event of your disclosing the terms of reparation which you believe will be satisfactory, and on its appearing that they are so, to consider this evidence of the justice of his Britannick majesty as a pledge for an effectual interposition with respect to all the abuses against a recurrence of which the proclamation was meant to provide, and to proceed to concert with you, a revocation of that act, bearing the same date with the act of reparation to which the United States are entitled.
I am not unaware, sir, that according to the view which you appear to have taken of your instructions, such a course of proceeding has not been contemplated by them. It is possible, nevertheless, that a re-examination, in the spirit in which I am well persuaded it will be made, may discover them to be not inflexible to a proposition, in so high a degree, liberal and conciliatory. In every event the president will have manifested his willingness to meet your government on a ground of accommodation, which spares to its feelings, however misapprehended he may deem them, every concession not essentially due to those which must be equally respected; and consequently will have demonstrated that the very ineligible posture given to so important a subject in the relations of the two countries, by the unsuccessful termination of your mission, can be referred to no other source, than the rigorous restrictions under which it was to be executed.
I make no apology, sir, for the long interval between the date of your letter and that under which I write. It is rendered unnecessary by your knowledge of the circumstances to which the delay is to be ascribed.
With high consideration and respect, I have the honour to be, Sir, Your most obedient servant, (Signed) JAMES MADISON. George H. Rose, Esq. His Britannick Majesty's Minister, &c. [For Mr. Rose's reply see fourth page.]
NEW YORK, March 30.
IMPORTANT.
The ship Baltic, arrived last night, sailed from Liverpool the 22d of Feb. and on the 27th, in lat. 49, 11, long. 17, 20, was boarded by a French lugger, who examined her papers, and finding her cargo was salt and crates, permitted her to proceed, as they said she was of no value to them; they had boarded several American ships from the same port, with similar cargoes, which they did not detain. The Mars, of New York, from Savannah for London, and the Mars from Liverpool, of and for Philadelphia, they had captured and sent for France.
On the 18th March, in lat. 42, 12, long. 56, 24, spoke the ship Pocahontas Thomas Harris master, of and for Boston from Liverpool: Capt. H. sailed on the 24th February, and on the 1st March was captured by two French frigates, the Hermoine and Ortance, from Martinico, who had a few hours before taken the Brutus of Duxbury, from Liverpool for Boston, and after stripping her of sails, &c. she was set on fire about 5 P. M.—the commodore of the frigates permitted the Pocahontas to proceed (after discharging the crates between decks into the sea), on condition that capt. Harris should take on board without any supply of provisions, the officers and crews of the ships Eliza, William and Brutus.
The Eliza, Elisha Dunbar master, of New York, from Liverpool for Charleston (belonging to Jacob Barker of this city), was captured on the 17th of Feb. and set on fire two hours after, allowing only time for the officers and people to take their clothes from her.
The William, Charles Rockwell master, of New York, from Liverpool for Savannah, was captured on the 29th of February; they took from her the provisions, and stripped her of sails, &c. with some crates from between decks, and set her on fire the 1st of March.
The Pocahontas was short of provisions, and had been on short allowance from their leaving the frigates. Capt. Delano relieved them by taking on board his ship captains Dunbar and Rockwell, with a part of their officers and crews, who have arrived in the Baltic.
The frigates had captured two British and one Portuguese vessel since leaving Martinico, and burnt them.
Gazette.
The ship Ceres, Green, arrived late last night in 34 days from Bordeaux, with Paris papers to the 20th ult. but they contain nothing new. Every thing remains as per our last accounts.
We have conversed with a gentleman who left Paris on the 13th Feb.—He states that Mr. Armstrong was officially advised of our embargo about the 10th. The general opinion was that America must take a decided part with either France or England. It was reported at Paris and Bordeaux, that
the Toulon and Rochfort squadrons, of 17 sail of the line, had formed a junction, and put to sea.
Ibid. The subjoined resolution has passed both houses of the legislature of this state by an unanimous vote. IN SENATE.
March 26, 1808.
Resolved—(if the honourable the assembly concur therein) that the senators and representatives of this state, in the congress of the United States be requested to represent in the most earnest manner to the national government, the exposed situation of the port of New-York, and the urgent necessity in the present menacing state of our exterior relations of making and applying such appropriations of money as may be fully adequate to the protection of that important part of the state, and that they be further requested to represent the destitute condition of our seamen—the danger of their migrating to foreign countries for employment—and, the imperious considerations of justice, humanity, and policy, which combine in favour of ameliorating the situation of that meritorious description of citizens, and of securing their services in defence of the country.
April 1.
Extract of a letter received by a gentleman in this city from his correspondent at St. Sebastians, dated Feb. 22.
"At the present moment great consternation prevails in this province from the circumstance of the French having taken possession of the fortifications of Figueira, a principal key to Spain and to the citadel of Pampelune. Here the Spaniards cry aloud for vengeance.
"The Courier of this morning brings the news that the king of Spain has consented to their taking possession of the citadel of Pampelune; and it is said also that the French troops are at Barcelona."
IMPORTANT DECISION.
Letters have lately been received at the town of Providence, (R. I.) from London, informing that the court of appeals in prize causes, in England, have reversed the sentence of the vice admiralty court of Bermuda, which condemned the valuable ship John Jay and her cargo, in the month of April 1806.—That ship, on her passage to Providence from Batavia, was detained by the British sloop of war Driver, and sent into Bermuda, in January, 1806.—After her condemnation, an appeal was interposed, and the ship and cargo were delivered to the claimants on bonds, and under an agreement to place the estimated value in the hands of Trustees in London, to wait the result of the appeal. This was accordingly done, and the property is now ordered to be restored to the American proprietors. On the trial in London, the king's advocate relied on the following points chiefly.
1. A false destination thence inferring fraud; the ship being cleared for Sumatra and China, when it was clear that she was not to go thither. 2. The voyage being from Amsterdam. 3. Continuity of voyage—cargo the preceding voyage being from Batavia, not having been landed in the United States. 4. Illegal trade, not being permitted by the Dutch in peaceable times.
The principle adopted by the high court in this decision is favourable to many American claimants, as a large amount of property has been condemned in the vice admiralty courts, which must be restored.
Extract of a letter from Messrs. Cardoqui & Sons of Bilboa, to Gen. Armstrong, at Paris dated the 14th Jan. 1808.
"We take the liberty to inform your excellency that a French boat privateer, named la Precasuer, fitted out at Bayou, in France, with 25 men and small arms, by Messrs. d'Aguerre & Co. of that place, which has been for some time in the neighbouring ports, has lately taken two American vessels which were coming from the United States direct into this port, and consigned to us; therefore we find ourselves under the necessity of intruding on your excellency's goodness, to beg due protection for the American colours, well assured that your excellency's influence will obtain release of both vessels so unjustly detained.
"The first was the schooner Augusta, captain Joseph Stickney, loaded at Salem, with 692 bags and 9 hogsheads of cocoa, 185 boxes of sugar, and 80 bags of pepper, for account and risk of Mr. Israel Thorndike, of Beverly, in the United States, and was detained off this bar, and sent into Socoa, the 25th ult. notwithstanding that she had all her papers in due form and regular order, and that she had neither her ship papers endorsed by any British cruiser, nor has been boarded at all by them, as Mr. Lanne, American vice-consul at Bayou, must have communicated to you ere now by our orders, as being nearer the spot and better acquainted with the particulars; and through him we have claimed her release, but heretofore to no purpose; and it appears she was only stopped because the pepper might be of English produce, in spite of the consul's certificates, which prove it to be from India.
"The second is the brig Vengeance, captain Ward Chipman, coming from Norfolk, with a cargo of tobacco, belonging to our worthy friend William Gray, Esq. of Salem, and according to what the captain of the privateer says she has been boarded by a British frigate, and on this account was likewise detained off this port on the 7th inst. by the same boat privateer, and sent into some French port, but we do not know which yet, but presume it to be Bayou.
"We have seen the imperial decree, dated at Milan the 17th ult. which might concern the brig, but not the schooner; but trust that your excellency's usual zeal will overcome whatever difficulties might be opposed, firmly grounded upon the justness of the cause, and captain Chipman's ignorance of said imperial decree, which must be attended to, and by these means obtain a quick release not only of the said schooner, but likewise of the above mentioned brig."
Extract of a letter from Leghorn, dated January 20, received by a Merchant in New York.
"An embargo was laid in Leghorn on the last of January, on all vessels, excepting French. The ship Grace, of Boston, is captured and carried into P. Feraio; schooner Hope, of Philadelphia, do. and carried into the Gulph of Spain; and brig Eliza, from Boston, boarded and captured in Leghorn roads, after coming to anchor, by French privateers. These vessels were not boarded by any British cruiser on their passage.
"A retro-active power is given to the French

decree of 17th Dec. and vessels are seized for having been boarded by British cruisers, before the decree could in the nature of things be known—Two American vessels have been confiscated at Marseilles, under this plea.
The interruption apprehend in discharging the Vermont, did not take place; the whole of the cargo has been transported to Leghorn, under bond, by coasting vessels; the goods generally in bad condition, from the long detention.
March 31.
The ship Charleston Packet, Chase, arrived yesterday in 35 days from Algesiras. Captain Chase informs, that the Rochfort squadron passed up the Straits of Gibraltar on the 28th Jan.—Other accounts say that it had arrived safe at Toulon.
This news is confirmed by a passenger in the Ceres, from Bordeaux, who states that the Rochfort and Toulon squadron had joined, and forming a fleet of 17 sail of the line, had put to sea.
A Gibraltar paper of the 13th ult. mentions, that the Rochfort squadron are described as being wretchedly man'd with respect to seamen, with the exception of two seventy fours, which appeared to be very completely filled with troops. An American who had arrived at Gibraltar had fallen in with the squadron.
The Rochfort squadron is composed of the Majestique 120 guns; Ajax 80; Lys 74; Suffrein 74; Magnanime 74; Jemappe 74; Flora 24; Surveillant brig.
On the 10th ult. rear admiral sir Richard Strachan and the under mentioned ships composing his squadron, appeared at the mouth of the Straits, and passed up with a strong breeze at W. N. W.—Ceres 80 guns, sir R. Strachan, capt. Richardson; Superb 74, capt. M'Leod; Cumberland 74, hon. capt. Woodhouse; Spartiate 74, sir Francis Laforey; Warrior 74, capt. Spranger; Renown 74, capt. Alexander; Lavinia frigate, capt. Hencock.
ST. SEBASTIANS, Jan. 11.
Return of the French troops which have entered or are to enter Spain, through Irun from the 19th Oct. 1807, to the 15th of Jan. 1808.
   Armies Generals Men Horses     First Junot 27,879 3,653   Second Dupont 23,927 3,121   Third Moncey 17,983 3,330  
Total, 71,789 10,104
Marshal Moncey's army is to be 30,000 men strong, with the reserve under gen. Monton at St. Jean Pie de Port.
The emperor is daily expected at Bayonne where guards of honour have been formed, composed of 40 young men on horseback, 100 on foot, with showy uniforms, and 50 Basques in their national dress. Neither the object of the French army, nor the day of the emperor's arrival are known; but we shall shortly hear something positive.
PHILADELPHIA, April 1.
We understand upon respectable authority that such is the distress produced in the Floridas by our embargo, that a person high in office there has proceeded to New Orleans and has had a conference with general Claiborne. He has demanded in a tone of menace, permission to obtain a supply of provisions from the Mississippi. The governor not feeling authorised to grant it, it is apprehended some violent measures will be resorted to. Dispatches to this effect are received at Washington. Porto Rico and Cuba are in a state of great distress.
A terrible massacre of the Indian tribes on the Missouri, took place in January last. The Sacs and Foxes were the victims; the Ottos, Mahas, and Sioux, the perpetrators of the murders. "Men, women and children were nearly all destroyed," says the Washington Exposition. A few of the chiefs, however, have escaped, and taken refuge at St. Louis.
BALTIMORE, April 2.
Died yesterday morning, of a pulmonary complaint, GABRIEL CHRISTIE, Esq. collector of this port, in the 51st year of his age.
CONGRESS.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
FRIDAY, April 1.
A message was received from the senate, notifying, that they had appointed a committee on their part, jointly with a committee to be appointed on the part of this house, to examine and report what further business ought to be done during the present session, and when it will be expedient to close the same.
Mr. Randolph said it would be recollected by the house, that during the proceedings of yesterday, two motions, which he deemed of great importance to the publick, had been crushed in embryo by a refusal to consider them. As this precluded all debate, it enabled a majority to elap their imprimatur on a motion, in the same manner as in a despotick government a prince puts his imprimatur on the press. This was contrary to the spirit of a free government, and at war with the constitution of the U. S. By this rule a member of the minority could never get an opportunity of having any question discussed. It was true that the multiplicity of speeches this session was in some measure an evil; but as this could be remedied by preventing a member from speaking more than twice in committee of the whole, and once in this house, it ought not surely to preclude a discussion of the most important measures. He contended that this rule was a dangerous innovation, and he believed had been introduced during the present session. In former times the people would not have submitted to it. He therefore offered the following motion, as an amendment to the standing rules of the house:
When a motion is made and seconded, it shall be considered as in the possession of the house, and the question for considering it shall not preclude debate.
The Speaker said the rules could not be amended until after one day's notice.
Mr. Stanford was proceeding to make some observations on Mr. Randolph's motion, when he was called to order by one of the members. He said if he was out of order when speaking on a point of order, he would give up. He then, after
*These are understood to be motions for taking off the injunction of secrecy on the late confidential message.
some introductory remarks, offered the following resolution, and called for the ayes and noes on it, which were ordered to be taken; but he afterwards withdrew the resolution—Resolved, That the committee on the district of Columbia be instructed to inquire and report to this house how far the present plan of the city of Washington, and the arrangements of the publick buildings belonging to the U. States, can be so modified or altered, or other measures taken, as shall go both to promote the convenience of the government, and at the same time the future growth and prosperity of the city.
Mr. Stanford again spoke at considerable length on Mr. Randolph's motion. He was repeatedly called to order, but still went on. The speaker said there could be no debate on the motion until the house had agreed to consider it. From this decision Mr. S. appealed, but afterwards withdrew the appeal.
Mr. Randolph also spoke at length in favour of his motion. He again referred to the motions which he yesterday made in conclave, which he said, involved questions of the greatest importance to the people of this country, on a subject in which they were now plunged in utter darkness .
Mr. Smilie opposed the motion. He said some gentlemen thought that many of the members were not capable of voting until they were instructed ; but he believed some of the most sensible men in the house never spoke at all. The gentleman from Virginia had no right to complain of this rule, as he was allowed and occupied as much of the time of the house as any member. The house had better be occupied in putting the country in a state of defence, instead of squabbling about their rules.—There was too much talking already. He hoped the rule would remain as it was.
Mr. Quincy said there was no rule to prevent a subject from being discussed before the house agreed to consider it, although the practice of the house had been different.
Mr. G. W. Campbell would say nothing as to the propriety of referring to what had been done in private; but he would say that the house had not, while in secret, refused to consider any motion involving the interest of the country. He did not believe any possible benefit would have resulted from the success of the motions which had been alluded to. He supported the rule of the house as it stood.
A Message, in writing, was received from the president of the United States. Mr. Randolph observed, that notwithstanding what had been said by the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Smilie) he had no wish to be reckoned among the number of those who testified their sagacity by their silence. And although it had been asserted that there was no motion made in conclave involving the interests of the nation, yet so different was his opinion on that subject that he should continue to reiterate the motion until the house agreed to consider it. Mr. Randolph was proceeding in support of his motion, when the speaker informed him that as the message from the President was confidential it would be necessary to have the galleries cleared immediately. Mr. R. said he was just about to make a motion to that effect himself! The galleries were accordingly cleared, and remained so until the house adjourned.
On Friday the 8th instant, will be Sold on the premises,
A LOT OF LAND,
on Woodside's wharf, adjoining the property of J. & W. Southgate, with a HOUSE thereon, 24 feet front, in fee simple, belonging to the estate of William Harshorne. Terms 2, 4, and 6 months, notes with approved security.
The Trustee.
By virtue of a Decree of the Worshipful Court of Princess-Anne County, sitting as a Court of Chancery, for the County aforesaid, in the suit of JOHN READE, Complainant,
vs. WM. J. KEELING, and MARY his wife, and ELIZABETH HAYNES, Defendants,
WILL BE SOLD at Publick Sale, to the highest bidder, on THURSDAY the 28th day of April next, on the premises, in the Town of Kempville, in the county aforesaid,
The Lot or Lots of LAND,
with the Houses and appurtenances belonging thereto, having been the former residence of Mr. Wm. White, deceased. This Property is elegantly situated, and the Dwelling-House is large, excellent and commodious, with good out houses, a fine garden and pasture.
The terms of Sale will be Cash, to be paid on the ratification thereof by the Court.
William Bishop, William Dale Woodhouse, Thomas Cornick, Arthur S. Woodhouse, Charles Sawyer. Com'rs.
March 23.
1m
Landing this day at Commerce-Street Wharf, out of the schooner Little Charles, from Antigua,
90 hogsheads RUM, and a quantity of LIMES and ORANGES in barrels For Sale by Warren Ashley.
April 4
tf
The Subscriber having resumed his former Business of Commissioner and Broker,
will buy or sell Goods on Commission, post Books, adjust Accounts, and procure Money on good paper or merchandise, at the shortest notice.
James Maurice, No. 44, Church-Street tf
March 30.
COCKE & SANFORD, Have received eighteen hogsheads and eighteen barrels Loaf and Lump SUGAR, which they offer for Sale on very moderate terms.
On hand of their last importation,
2 bales flaxen OZNABURGS, 2000 wt. Seine Twine; 1 bale assorted Blue Cloths, 1 bale superfine Navy Blue Cloth, 2 boxes well assorted Irish Linens, Irish and Dutch Sheetings and Dowlas, 2 Trunks Cotton Hosiery; 1 case D'mities, 2 do. assorted Nankeneets and Grand-cells, 3 do. Callicoes; 2 do. Cotton Cambricks, 1 box French Cambricks and Handkerchiefs, 2 cases Mens' and 1 do. Childrens' fashionable Beaver Hats Feb. 24.
BOOTS.
Elegant Hussar & Backstrap BOOTS Just received and for Sale by
Feb. 8.
tf
Wood & Hastings, opposite Market Square
THE PUBLICK LEDGER.
THURSDAY MORNING, APRIL 7, 1808.
We have in this paper concluded the publication of all the documents relative to our foreign relations with Great-Britain and France, as communicated by the President to both Houses of Congress.
The failure of the negotiation with Great Britain will appear extraordinary, when we advert to the just and moderate professions made on both sides. Very little advantage can result from taking a review of what has past, our remarks will therefore be limited.
The failure of this negotiation in the first instance may perhaps be ascribed to the positive instructions given to Mr. Monroe, not to separate the affair of the Chesapeake from other causes of disagreement. We would be far, however, from affirming it as a fact, that the negotiation in London did fail on that account, for if we judge from what passed afterwards at Washington, we greatly incline to the opinion that some other objection would have been taken.
Without intending to bestow an unqualified approbation upon every part of Mr. Madison's letter to Mr. Rose, we hesitate not to say that the ground taken by him with respect to the proclamation of the president, was liberal as it regarded Great-Britain, and honourable to this country, were such the reasons advanced in support of the ground taken, were such as every candid man (we think) of any nation, will approve. It would be useless for us to attempt to offer any remarks in support of those reasons, when in this paper, they are before the reader, and speak for themselves.
It was not likely that Mr. Madison would say much in support of the proclamation, as an original measure, being one in which he may be supposed very much to have participated. But there never was any measure under all circumstances, more judicious than the proclamation, when originally issued. We do consider that this measure saved the country from being plunged into a war without reflecting upon the consequences, or even of enquiring into the real causes of war.
The executive powers of this country are very limited, as regard peace and war; it is but little that he can do in resenting national indignities or injuries—but if upon a great national question in which the honour and the interests of the nation were involved, and attacked, the executive had refused to partake of the sympathies of the people, he would justly have forfeited all pretensions to confidence. The executive could not therefore from a sense of duty, be a silent and calm spectator of an outrage, which is without example. The only active measure in the power of the executive was adopted—Congress might have been called, but the wisdom of that measure is very questionable. Had Congress been convened immediately after the affair of the Chesapeake, participating strongly in the feelings of the nation, they would have been precipitated into a war without enquiring whether the act of outrage was authorized or not. The sober judgment of the nation would have condemned a war thus unadvisedly undertaken, and its rumour effects would have produced discontent, that must have enfeebled if not have destroyed the energies of the nation.
The Proclamation then being a measure taken with a view to such important consequences, could not be revoked until the atonement for the injury which produced it had been received, at any rate its revocation ought not to have been a preliminary to an offer of atonement, which might not perhaps have been such as the honour of the nation could have accepted.
As Great-Britain had given ostensible evidence of a disposition to render justice to the United States in regard to the affair of the Chesapeake, in disavowing the act, in renouncing the principle upon which that act was founded, in sending a special minister to make satisfaction—having gone thus far, it will appear extraordinary that she should confine that minister by instructions which were calculated to defeat the object of his mission. The whole ground of controversy is before the American publick, it will be shortly before the people of Great-Britain and before the world. The conduct of the American government upon this occasion, will meet the investigation of the candid and impartial of all nations, with confidence in the justice of its measures.
It may perhaps be thought, that the offers made by Mr. Madison to Mr. Rose, after he had ascertained that the instructions of the latter precluded his acceptance of those offers, were unnecessary and uncaudid—There is some force in the observation, but it was necessary that the world should know the ground taken by the American government, and these offers on its part, may have also been intended as an exposition of a basis upon which future negotiation may be founded.
We would here take a short view of what may be the probable consequence of the failure of this negotiation, but our limits do not permit, and we are led to bestow a few remarks on the documents relative to French affairs.
Accustomed to notice the injustice of the person who directs the affairs of France, in his conduct to other nations, we had not calculated upon more forbearance in his measures towards the United States. It is impossible to reason upon the conduct of a ruler, who is restrained by no principles of national or moral justice, whose minister is commanded to declare that rights secured by the laws of nations, and more solemnly secured by treaty, are disregarded when opposed to his views. The nations of Europe having been compelled to fall into the views of Buonaparte, his minister plainly tells Mr. Armstrong, that his master expects to hear no complaints from the United States. The people of America now know the ground upon which they stand with respect to the French decrees, and we presume we shall hear no more of the exceptions made in our favour. They were exceptions upon which we never calculated, and we have not been deceived.
This day's paper affords a serious view of the practical operation of these decrees upon our commerce. The right of neutrals have no longer any existence, when the commander of a French ship of war is made a judge of those rights, without the benefit of an appeal. When was it that neutrals were met upon the high seas and destroyed, without the chance of defence before some regular tribunal? Yes—The Rochfort squadron did something of this sort, but from a different motive. We should like to know what satisfaction our zealous minister at Paris obtained for the American vessels burned by that squadron? To reason upon such measures is almost impossible, they are such as cannot be thought of with patience.
DIED on Sunday last, at his lodgings in this place, JAMES BEAN, Esq. of the island of Jamaica.
Received per schooner Traveller, from Boston, and for Sale, By EDWARD CLARK,
10 tons small, flat, and square Bar Iron, 100 bundles assorted Nail Rods. Nov. 18. tf
Postscript.
[We have not time to comment on the following, every American will make his own comment.]
From the Baltimore Federal Gazette, received last evening by capt. Herbert's packet in 26 hours from Baltimore.
Much has been predicted; the people of America now see, as it rapidly and officially unfolds, the undisguised and long since determined intention of France. And the people will bear in mind, that the French decree of Berlin, prohibiting all intercourse with England, was eleven months previous to the British Orders in Council.
Translation of a letter from M. CHAMPAGNY to general ARMSTRONG, dated PARIS, January 15, 1808.
SIR, The different notes which you have done me the honour to address to me have been laid before his majesty.
The proceedings of England towards all governments are so contrary to the law of nations, and to all the rules constantly observed even among enemies, that no recourse against this power is any longer to be found in the ordinary means of repression. In order to annoy her, it is become necessary to turn against her the arms which she makes use of herself; and if transient inconveniences result therefrom, it is to her alone that they are to be imputed. Since England respects no laws, how could they be respected with regard to her? And if some powers tolerate the infractions committed on their independence, could they have the right to require that France alone should restrain herself within the limits which her enemy has every where overleaped?
The United States, more than any other power, have to complain of these aggressions of England. It has not been enough for her to offend against the independence of their flag, nay, against that of their territory, and of their inhabitants, by attacking them even in their ports, by forcibly carrying away their crews; her decrees of the 11th November have made a fresh attack on their commerce and on their navigation, as they have done on those of all other powers.
In the situation in which England has placed the continent, especially since her decrees of the 11th Nov. his majesty has no doubt of a declaration of war against her by the United States. Whatever transient sacrifices war may occasion, they will not believe it consistent either with their interest or dignity to acknowledge the monstrous principle, and the anachrony which that government wishes to establish on the seas. If it be useful and honourable for all nations to cause the true maritime law of nations to be re-established, and to avenge the insults committed by England against every flag, IT IS INDISPENSIBLE for the UNITED STATES who, from the extent of their commerce, have often to complain of their violations.
War exists then, in fact, between England and the United States; and his majesty considers it as declared from the day on which England published her decrees. In that persuasion, his majesty, ready to consider the United States as associated with the cause of all the powers who have to defend themselves against England, has not taken any definitive measure towards the American vessels which may have been brought into our ports. HE HAS ORDERED THAT THEY SHOULD REMAIN SEQUESTERED UNTIL A DECISION MAY BE HAD THEREON, ACCORDING TO THE DISPOSITIONS WHICH SHALL HAVE BEEN EXPRESSED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
The Subscriber grateful for past favours, takes the liberty of informing the publick, that in addition to his BEER and PORTER-HOUSE, he has rented the upper apartment of that commodious house situated at the corner of Wide Water and Commerce-Street, formerly occupied by Mrs. Bryan, which he has opened as a Tavern, by the name of the GLOBE TAVERN, and will keep a constant supply of the best of Liquors; and for the accommodation of customers, he will keep a constant supply of prime New-York Ale, Philadelphia Beer and Porter.
Solicitous for a share of publick patronage, he assures those who may favour him with their custom, that every attention will be paid to give satisfaction. Gentlemen boarders can be accommodated by the week, month, or year, upon moderate terms. Good Stabling and forage for a few horses.
WILLIAM TONKIN.
Two TENEMENTS situated on Town-Point, will be rented cheap, together or separate. For terms apply as above. April 7. 1m
Intending to leave the country for a few months, I have appointed Mr. William Dickson my attorney. Bartholomew Redmon. April 7. 1m
FOR RENT.
The STORE in Market-Square, now occupied by the subscriber. For terms apply at his office. Thomas Blanchard. April 7. tf
6000 bushels St. Ubes SALT—afloat.
IN STORE, 35 puncheons 3d and 4th proof Antigua Rum, 100 hogsheads Sugar, principally Antigua, 4,000 wt. Green Coffee; 850 Demijohns, 7,500 bushels coarse Salt; 100 barrels Rye Whiskey, 30 tierces London Brown Stout, 20 hogsheads Philadelphia Ale and Porter, 150 barrels superfine and fine Flour; 40 kegs fresh Raisins, 10 pipes London particular Madeira Wine, fit for use, 600 ready made Check Shirts; 20 hds Petersburg Tobacco, 50 barrels Pork; 100 barrels Sugar; a few cases Hermitage For Sale on liberal terms by C. & F. Whittle. February 6. tf
FOR SALE,
186 barrels new PORK, 44 kegs Lard; 10 bales Sacking and Oznaburghs, 8 hogsheads old Jamaica Rum; 3 do. Jamaica Sugar Richard & John Taylor. March 23. 6
The Packet Schooner Rising States, will sail for New-York with all possible dispatch. For freight or passage, apply on board at Gibson's wharf. April 7.
The Schooner Jefferson, Carlton, will sail for New-York on Sunday next. For passage only, apply to the master on board. April 7.

Sir, Being deeply impressed with the sense of his majesty's anxiety, that full effect should be given to those views of justice and moderation, by which his conduct has been regulated through the whole of the unfortunate transaction whence the present differences have arisen; and of the disappointment of which he would learn the frustration of his just and equitable purposes; I have felt it incumbent upon me, on the receipt of the letter, which you did me the honour to address to me on the fifth instant, to apply anew to this matter the most ample and serious consideration. It is with the most painful sensations of regret, that I find myself on the result of it under the necessity of declining to enter into the terms of negotiation, which by direction of the president of the United States you therein offer. I do not feel myself competent in the present instance, to depart from those instructions, which I stated in my letter of the 26th January last, and which preclude me from acceding to the condition thus proposed. I should add that I am absolutely prohibited from entering upon matters unconnected with the specific object I am authorised to discuss, much less can I thus give any pledge concerning them. The condition suggested, moreover, leads to the direct inference, that the proclamation of the president of the United States, of the 2d July, 1807, is maintained either as an equivalent for reparation for the time being, or as a compulsion to make it.
It is with the more profound regret that I feel myself under the necessity of declaring, that I am unable to act upon the terms thus proposed, as it becomes my duty to inform you, in conformity to my instructions, that on the rejection of the demand stated in my former letter, on the part of his majesty, my mission is terminated. And as his majesty's government in providing me with those instructions, did not conceive that after the declaration of his sentiments respecting the affair of the Chesapeake was made known to this government, the state of any transactions pending or unterminated between the two nations could justify the perseverance in the enforcement of the president's proclamation, I can exercise no discretion on this point.
As on a former occasion I detailed, though minutely, the motives for that demand on the part of his majesty, which I with so much concern learn to be deemed inadmissible by the government of the United States, I should here abstain from an exposition of them, which visibly can have no further effect upon the negotiation, if I did not deem it essential that they should not be left under any misapprehension which I might be able to remove. I shall, therefore, take a short review of the transaction, which has given rise to these discussions, in order the more correctly to determine the soundness of the principle on which that demand is made.
Certain deserters from his majesty's navy, many of them his natural born subjects, having entered into the service of the United States, were repeatedly and fruitlessly demanded by the British officers, of the recruiting officers of the United States, but were retained in their new service. As it was a matter of notoriety that several of these deserters were on board the frigate of the United States the Chesapeake, they were demanded of that frigate on the high seas by his majesty's ship Leopard, and all knowledge of their presence on board being denied, she was attacked and four of them, one avowedly a native Englishman, were taken out of her. Without being deterred by the consideration of how far circumstances hostile in their nature had provoked, though they undoubtedly by no means justified this act of the British officer, his majesty's government directed, that a positive disavowal of the right of search asserted in this case, and of the act of the British officer as being unauthorized, and a promise of reparation, should be conveyed to the American minister in London, before he had made any representation by order of the United States. This disavowal made on the 2d of August last, was transmitted by him to his government, before the 6th of that month. But before Mr. Monroe had received his orders to demand reparation, his majesty learnt, with what surprize it is needless to dwell upon, that the president of the United States had interdicted by proclamation, bearing date the 2d of July, 1807, the entry of all their ports to the whole of his navy. This surprize was certainly increased, when in the letter delivered by that minister to require redress for the wrong, although it went into details unconnected with it, not only no concern was expressed on the part of the United States, at having felt themselves compelled to enact measures of so much injury and indignity towards a friendly power, but no mention was made of the causes of such measures being resorted to, or even of the fact of their having been adopted. In addition to the embarrassment arising from these circumstances, and the insufficiency of the explanations subsequently given to Mr. Canning, the introduction of a subject foreign to that of the complaint became the main impediment to the success of the discussions which took place in London. When I had the honour to open the negotiation with you, Sir, as I had learnt the president's proclamation was still in force, it became my duty, conformably to my instructions, to require its recall as a preliminary to further discussion: had it not been in force, I was not ordered to have taken it into consideration in the adjustment of reparation: and it was considered as hardly possible that it should not have been recalled immediately upon the knowledge of his majesty's disavowal of the attack upon the Chesapeake, as an unauthorized act. But his majesty could not suffer the negotiation to be carried on, on his behalf, under an interdict, which even if justifiable in the first moment of irritation, cannot be continued after the declaration of his majesty's sentiments upon the transaction, except in a spirit of hostility.
It might have been fairly contended, that in the first instance, the exercise of such an act of power, before reparation was refused or unduly protracted, was incompatible with the purposes and essence of pacific negotiation, and with a demand of redress through that channel; but such have been his majesty's conciliatory views, that this argument has not been insisted on, although it might now be the more forcibly urged as it appears that the government of the United States was from the first sensible that, even had hostility been meditated by the British government, it would not have commenced it in such a manner. But the exception taken, is to the enforcement continued up to the present time, of measures highly unfriendly in their tendency,
persisted in, not only after the disavowal in question; the promise of the proffer of suitable reparation; and the renewed assurances of his majesty's amicable dispositions, but, after security has been given in a public instrument bearing date the 16th Oct. 1807, that the claim to the seizure of deserters from the national ships of other powers, cannot again be brought forward by his majesty's naval officers, it is unnecessary to dwell upon the injury and indignity to which his majesty's service is exposed, both as touching the freedom and security of correspondence of his agents, and accredited ministers in the United States, or as resulting from a measure, which in time of war, excludes the whole of his navy from all their ports; which ports are completely open to the fleets of his enemies. It will be sufficient to observe, that even where exemptions from it are granted, they are made subject to such conditions, that of the three last British ships of war, which have entered these ports upon public business, two of them, his majesty's ship Statira, having on board a minister sent out for the adjustment of the present differences, and a schooner bearing despatches, in consequence of their inability to procure pilots, were obliged to enter these waters without such assistance, and were exposed to considerable danger. Great Britain by the forms established, could repair the wrongs committed, even to the satisfaction of the United States no otherwise than by the channel of negotiation; yet she avowed distinctly, that a wrong was committed, and that she was ready to make reparation for it; it cannot therefore be contended, that the unavoidable delay of actual reparation, subjected her to the imputation of persisting in an aggression, which was disclaimed from the first; if this be true, however much she will regret any impediment in the adjustment of a difference, in which the feelings of this nation are so materially interested, can she consistently with a due care of her own honour and interests, allow it to be concluded on her part under an adherence to a conduct, which has a decided character of enmity in the proceedings held towards her by the other party.
I know not in what view the perseverance in the president's proclamation, up to this moment, can be considered, but in that of a measure of retaliation; or of self assumed reparation; or as a measure intended to compel reparation; unless it be that which, if I rightly understand, you define it to be, a measure of precaution.
If, when a wrong is committed, retaliation is instantly resorted to by the injured party, the door to pacific adjustment is closed, and the means of conciliation are precluded. The right to demand reparation is incompatible with the assumption of it.—When parties are in a state of mutual hostility, they are so far on a footing, and as such they may treat: But a party disclaiming every unfriendly intention, and giving unequivocal proofs of an amicable disposition, cannot be expected to treat with another, whose conduct towards it has the direct effects of actual hostility. If then, the enforcement of the president's proclamation up to the present moment, is a measure of self-assumed reparation, it is directly repugnant to the spirit and fact of amicable negotiation; if it is a measure to compel reparation, it is equally so; and by the perseverance in it, Great Britain is dispensed with the duty of proffering redress. But if it is a measure of precaution, in order to procure reparation, or in order to compel it, it falls under the objections I have just stated. If it is a precaution adopted as a guard against acts of violence apprehended on the part of his majesty's naval officers, it surely cannot be considered as effectual a security as that arising from the renewed assurances of his majesty's friendly disposition, which imply a due observance of the rights of nations with which Great Britain is in amity, by all the persons holding authority under his majesty's government, from the disavowal of the pretension of the right of search of national ships; and from the further assurance of that disavowal, given in his majesty's proclamation of the 16th of October last: Neither under these concurrent circumstances can the plea of necessity be maintained, and if such a proceeding has not the plea of necessity, it assumes the character of aggression. If these concurrent securities against such an apprehension have any value the necessity no longer exists; if they are of no value, negotiation cannot be attempted, as the basis upon which it rests, the mutual confidence of the two parties would be wholly wanting.
From the moment after the unfortunate affair of the Chesapeake, that his majesty's naval commanders, in these waters, had ascertained that they were safe from the effervescence of that popular fury, under which the most glaring outrages were committed, and by which they were very naturally led to the supposition that they were objects of particular hostility, and that a state of war against them requiring precautions on their part, had commenced, no conduct has been imputed to them which could vindicate the necessity of maintaining in force the president's proclamation. Since that time such of those officers as have been necessitated by the circumstances of the war to remain in these waters, have held no communication with the shore, except in an instance two trifling to dwell upon, and instantly disavowed by the commanding officer; and they have acquiesced quietly in various privations, highly prejudicial to the service they were upon, and in consequence of an interdict, which had they been regardless of their duties towards a state, in amity with their sovereign, and had they not carefully repressed the feelings its tone and language had a direct tendency to provoke in them would have rather excited, than have averted the evils it was stated to be intended to prevent; were they regardful of these duties, it was unnecessary. Had they felt themselves obliged completely to evacuate the waters of the United States, especially whilst an enemy's squadron was harboured in them, they could have done it but under the admission of hostile compulsion, and under such compulsion, carried into full effect, his majesty could not have dissembled the extent of the injury received.
In the several cases adduced, in which Great Britain required certain preliminaries, previously to entering into negotiation, she regulated her conduct by the same principles to which she now adheres; and refused, whilst no hostility was exhibited on her part, to treat with powers, whose proceedings denoted it towards her: and who maintained their right in what they had assumed.
From the considerations thus offered, I trust that neither the order of reason, or that of usage, are in contradiction to the demand I have urged, nor am I aware how the order of time opposes the re-
vocation in the first instance, of that act, which affects injuriously one of the parties, and is still avowed by the other.
The subject is thus presented to you, sir, in the light in which it was natural that it should offer itself to his majesty's government. It certainly conceived the president's proclamation to rest chiefly, and most materially upon the attack made upon the frigate of the United States, the Chesapeake, by his majesty's ship Leopard, although other topics were adduced as accessories. In this apprehension it may be held to have been sufficiently warranted, by the precise time at which, and the circumstances under which, it was issued, and by its whole context; and the more so, as the impulse under which it was drawn up appears to have been so sudden as to have precluded a due examination of all the grounds of allegation contained in it. And here I beg leave to assure you, that with respect to the spirit, and tone of that instrument, it would be highly satisfactory to me, if I could feel myself justified in expressing on the part of his majesty, any degree of coincidence with the opinions you have announced, or when thus appealed to, and making every allowance for the irritation of the moment, I could dissemble the extreme surprise experienced by Great Britain, that the government of a friendly nation, even before an amicable demand of reparation was made; and yet meaning to make that demand; should have issued an edict directing measures of injury very disproportionate to what it knew was an unauthorised offence, and both in its terms and its purport so injurious to the government to which that demand was to be addressed, and tending to call forth in both nations the feelings under which a friendly adjustment would be the most difficult. But if, as I learn from you, sir, the proclamation rests substantially on other causes, it is then peculiarly to be regretted, that together with the demand for redress made in September last, the government of the United States did not think it to offer a negotiation, or an explanation of so momentous a measure, or to declare that its recall must be more or less connected with the adjustment of other alleged wrongs. Neither did it think it necessary to return any answer to the remonstrance given by his majesty's envoy at Washington, on the 13th July, 1807, in which he represented "that he considered that interdict to be so unfriendly in its object, and so injurious in its consequences to his majesty's interests, that he could not refrain from expressing the most sincere regret, that it ever should have been issued, and most earnestly deprecating its being enforced."
It could not be supposed that a circumstance of so great weight could be overlooked by his majesty's government, in determining the line of conduct to be held in the negotiation; and as little could it be expected to pass it over, when on the failure of the discussion with Mr. Monroe, it directed a special mission to be sent to the United States. It had the less reason to imagine that any other grievances could be connected with that, for the adjustment of which I am empowered to negotiate, as Mr. Monroe, in his letter to Mr. Canning of the 29th of July last, had stated with respect to other subjects of remonstrance that it was improper to mingle them with the present more serious cause of complaint; an opinion to which Mr. Canning declared his perfect assent in his letter to that minister of the second of the subsequent month; so that this act was left as single and distinct, to be singly and distinctly considered. His majesty's government, therefore, could not consistently with any view of the subject then before it, or indeed with the just object of my mission, direct or empower me to enter upon matters not connected with that of the Chesapeake; and they could with the less propriety do it, as in order to render the adjustment of differences of such a nature, the more easy and the more conspicuous, the ministers charged especially with such offices have been, with few if any exceptions restricted to the precise affair to be negotiated. With respect therefore to those other causes of complaint, upon which you inform me that the president's proclamation rests, I cannot be furnished with documents enabling me either to admit or to controvert those sentiments of grievance, foreign to the attack upon that ship, contained in your letter, or authorized to discuss the matters themselves. I shall therefore not allow myself to offer such comments as my personal knowledge of some of those transactions suggest to me, although their tendency would materially affect both the marked manner in which those transactions are portrayed, and the disadvantageous lights in which his majesty's government is represented to have acted respecting them. I am moreover led to the persuasion that my government will be the more easily able to rescue itself from inculpation, by the inference arising from passages in Mr. Monroe's letter to Mr. Secretary Canning, of the 29th September last, that the differences unhappily existing between the two nations were in a train of adjustment.
If his majesty has not permitted me to enter into the discussion of the search of neutral merchant ships for British seamen, together with the adjustment of the amount of reparation for the attack upon the Chesapeake; it was no wise with a view of precluding the further agitation of the question at a suitable time: but it was that the negotiation might be relieved from the embarrassments arising from the connection of the present matter with the one so foreign to it, and as it was but too well known, so difficult to be adjusted of a right distinctly disclaimed, with one which Great Britain has at all times asserted of enforcing her claim to the service of her natural born subjects, when found on board of merchant vessels of other nations; a claim which she founds upon that principle of universal law, which gives to the state the right of requiring the aid and assistance of her native citizens. The recurrence, therefore, to that course of negotiation, which has been originally settled between Mr. Secretary Canning and Mr. Monroe, and which had been alone broken in upon by orders subsequently received by that minister, can only be considered as a resumption of that course of things which Great Britain strenuously contended there was no ground to depart from. I may observe that this purpose might have been effected without the intervention of a special minister.
It will be in your recollection, sir, that in your first interview, I stated the condition, which made the subject of the present letter, before I was informed by you, that the president of the United States would consent to the separation of the two subjects.
I had trusted that the exposition, which I added
in my letter of the 26th January to the verbal explanation I had before offered, of the grounds of his majesty's demand, was both in its purport, and in the terms in which it was couched, such as to prevent a suspicion that they were in their intention derogatory to the honour, or calculated to wound the just sensibility of this nation. I may add that such a supposition could not be reconciled with the various ostensible and unequivocal demonstrations of his majesty's good faith and anxiety, that this transaction should be brought to an amicable termination, which were exhibited even prior to any remonstrances on the part, or by order of this government. The other topics which I felt myself authorized to advance in that letter, in illustration of that amicable disposition on the part of the king, were brought forward from the conviction I entertained that they must be of a nature to be satisfactory to this government, and therefore, such as it was particularly my duty to enforce; but not with a view to rest upon them the right to advance the claim which I have stated.
I may here remark, it is obvious that far from requiring that the first step towards an arrangement of reparation should be taken by the United States, Great Britain has already made them openly and distinctly; they are indubitable testimonies to the respect borne and decidedly marked by Great Britain, to the ties of amity subsisting between the two nations, and of her cordial desire to maintain them unimpaired, and as such alone they were urged.
As his majesty would have derived sincere satisfaction from the evidence of corresponding feelings on the part of the United States so it would be more painful to me to dwell upon a series of insults and menaces which, without any provocation of warlike preparation on the part of Great Britain, have been for months accumulated upon her through the United States, and but two frequently from quarters whose authority necessarily and powerfully commanded attention.
I ought, perhaps, to apologize for adverting to an incidental expression in your letter, if I did not think it right to remove any ambiguity respecting the nature of the claim which Great Britain maintained to her seamen, native citizens of the realm, who have deserted from her service to that of other powers: it is, that on demand they shall be forthwith, and consequently they shall instantly be freed from their newly contracted obligations.
Before I close this letter, allow me to state to you, sir, that I have felt it my duty to transmit to his majesty's government, the exposition contained in your letter of the 5th instant, of the various demands on the honour and good faith of Great Britain, on which the complaint is made, that satisfaction has not been afforded to the United States, and on which conjointly with the affair of the Chesapeake, you inform me that the proclamation of the president of the United States of the second of July, is founded. It will be for his majesty's government to determine on the part of Great Britain, whether any and what obligations remain to be fulfilled by her. Whether any denial, or such protraction of redress have occurred on her part, as to render necessary or justifiable the perseverance in an edict, which, when not necessary or justifiable, assumes a character of aggression: and whether on the result of those considerations, the present negotiation can be resumed on the part of his majesty, with a due regard for his own honour, or with a prospect of a more successful termination.
I have the honour to be, With the highest consideration, sir, Your most obedient and most humble servant, (Signed) G. H. ROSE.
The following prices will be given in Cash for 500 or 600 cords of BARK, deliverable at my Tan Yard,
Spanish Oak, $ 6 per cord, Willow or Water do. 5 Red do. 4 Young White do. 3 50 Beach Bark, 3 50
With a view to prevent disappointment to those who procure this article, arising from the uncertainty of the quantity which may be brought to market, I will receive all which may be delivered at my landing before the first day of June, provided it be well cured and in good order.
Theoderick Armistead. April 4. 2m
Fresh Family FLOUR.
Just Received, 40 barrels fresh Family FLOUR, of the Carlisle brand, made from wheat particularly selected for this purpose, and warranted superior to any offered for sale, except of this particular brand. Purchasers are at liberty to return any that does not answer the description.
Fisk & Collett. April 4. 3
New SHOES from New-York.
SAMUEL COLEMAN, Offers for Sale such as have been generally sold in retail at 9s and 8s 3d for 7s. 6d.; those at 1s for 13s 6d. except of Morocco leather; Ladies' Morocco Slippers at 8s 3d. for 7s. 6d. and in nearly the same ratio for every other kind of shoes, where the former prices will bear reduction.
VERNON'S BOOTS, at $8 50, which are no doubt the most elegant made in the United States. Having on hand nearly 200 pair of Boots, he believes there are very gentlemen who cannot be fitted. BUTTER at 17 cents in nice order; a few tons of Iron; a few hundred bushels of ground Alum Salt; India Cottons; Brown Sugar, &c. &c. as low as they can be sold for a profit, for Cash.
The Man who uses the high toned terms that none shall exceed his workmanship as a Boot Maker, must be very confident of his abilities, and will probably take a bet upon it of 1000 dollars; or if that is too much, it will come down to his level. John Vernon. April 1. 1f
Wanted to Purchase, A few likely Young NEGROES. For particulars apply at Mr. Daren's Tavern, Portsmouth, to JAMES COWSER. April 1. 3*
NORFOLK: PUBLISHED THREE TIMES A-WEEK, BY WILLIAM DAVIS, FOR THE PROPRIETOR, Opposite the Exchange Coffee-House. Price Six Dollars yearly, in advance.