The National Register.
London, England, 1812-01-05 00:00:00

JAN. 5.

in COuncil 'Must be -preceded, not only by the practical I
abandonment of the Decrees of Berlin and Milan, so f: as
they infringe the neutral rights of the United S.ar.€s, I:tit
by the renunciation on the part of France of the w"cole of
her system of commercial warfare against Great Britain,
of whieh those Decrees otiginally formed a part.
This system is understood to consist in a Course of
measures adopted by France and the other Powers on the
Continent subject to, or in alliance,with tier, calculated to
prevent the introduction into their territories of the pro-
dutOi and manufactures of Great Britain and her colonies,
and to annihilate her trade with them. However hostile
these regulations may be, on the part of France towards
Great Britain, or however sensibly the latter may feel their
effects, they are nevertheless to be regarded only as the ex-
pedients of one enemy against another, for which the
United States, as a neutral Power, can in no respect be
responsible : they are, too, in exact conrmity svith those
which Great Britain has herself adopted and acted Upon
time of peace as well as war ; and it is not to be presymed
that France would yield to -the unauthorized demand ot
America what she seems to have considered as one of the
most powerful engines of the present war. .
Such are the pretensions upon Which Great Britain
founds the violation of the maritime rigllts of the United
States—pretensions not theoretical mergy, but followed,
up by a desolating.war upon our unprotected commerce.
The ships of the United States, laden with the products of
our own soil and labour, navigated by our own citizens, and
peaceably pursuing. a lawful trade, are seized on our cvm
coasts, at the very mouths of our harbours, condemned and
confiscated.
Your Committee are not, however, of that sect whose
worship is at the shrine of a calculating 'avarice and while
we are laying before you the just complaints of our mer-
chants against the plunder of their ships and cargoes, we
annot refrain from presenting lc the justice and Lurnanit
of our country the unhappy case of our impressed seamen.
Although the groans of these victims of barbarity for the
loss of (what 'should be dearer to the Americans than
life) their liberty—although the cries of their wives aed
children in the privation of protectors and parents, have.
of late, beep drowned in the louder clamours at the loss of
property,- yet is the practice of forcing our mariners into
the Bt itish navy, in violation of the rights of our flag, car-
ried on with unabated rigour and severity. If it be our
duty to encourage the fair and legitimate commerce .
of
this country by protecting the property of the merchant,
then indeed, by as much' as life and liberty are more esti-
mable than ships and goods, so much more impressive is
the duty to shield the persons of our seamen, whose hard
and honest services are employed, equally with those .of
the merchants, in advancing, under the mantle of its laws,
the interests of their country.
To sum Up, in a word, the great causes of complaint
I:4•ainst Great Britain, your Committee need only say-
-1 hat the .United States, as a -sovereign and indepedient
Power, claim the right to use the ocean, which is the com-
mon and acknowledged highway of nations, for the pur-
poses of transporting, en their own vessels, the products of
their own soil, and the acquisitions of their industry, to a
market in the ports of friendly nations, and to bring home,
in return, such articles as their necessities or convenience
may require ; always regarding the rights of belligerents,
as defined by the established laws of nations. Gre
tain, in defiance of this incontestite ritrlit, capture
American vessel bound to, or returning from, a -pot-
our commerce is not favour,Td; enslaves our team,

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