The Sun.
London, England, 1827-01-10 00:00:00

CONGRESS.

In the Senate, on Tuesday, Mr. Johnson, of Key, introduced
a bill to abolish imprisonment for debt, which was read twice,
and committed to a- select Committee.—ln introducing the Bill,
Mr. .1. remarked, that if he were, offering a proposition of a
doubtful character to the consideration of the Senate, he should
not so often press its adoption. It was a prnpOsition which had
been sanctioned and approved by a majority of the Senate at its
previous Session. Imprisonment for debt, he believed, hail no
advocates in America—certainly none among the generous and
benevolent of mankind in any country. The contemplation of
the idea struck him with as' much horror as that of the tortures
of the Spanish Inquisition, and it was surely as disgraceful as the
continuation of that system was to Spain. It was equally pro-
ductive of sighs, and tears, and woe. The country, ahnost With
one voice, called for its abolition—the public press was unanimous
'in its fa-sour, and orators and statesmen united in denouncing it as a
relic of a barbarous age. It was also a violation of the spirit of our
free institutions—of the declaration of independence. It was a vio-
lation of personal liberty—it destroyed personal happiness, and took
from man his locomotive power. . The system originated in judicial
usurpation in England, whose Courts had assumed the power
upon mesne process, to incarcerate an unfortunate individual !
The system, odionS 'as it was to freedoin andinffependence, • wt.s
supported by aristocracy, and aided by the vindictive cruelty of
unrighteous creditors.- It was hostile to the morality and to the
precepts- of the Goipel, and was a remnant of barbarism and Go-
thic cruelty. The obligation of man to his felloW-Man should
have its basis on honour and property, and not upon the pound
of flesh. He felt, 1 therefore, that he was discharging an impera-
tive and a sacred duty in calling upon the wisdom and experience
of Congress to wipe away the stain from this fair page of our le-
gislation, and he hoped that a decision would he hail upOn its
merits at an early period of the Session.

(From the New York Daily Advertiser of Dec. 16.)
We publish to-day Mr. Gallatin's letter to Mr. Canning, and
Mr. Canning's answer, on the subject of the trade between this
country and the British West Indies. The instructions from our
Government to Mr. Gallatin are too long for publication ; hut
as the points in dispute may be understood from the corre-
spondence, it is'not essential to the formation of a satisfactory con-
clusion on the merits of the controversy, that the instructions
should be inserted.

We abstain from all remarks on this subject at present. If
the West India trade is lost to us, it will be seriously felt by dif-
ferent parts of the country, and, we apprehend, by the national
trituury.

MR. GALLATIN TO MR. CANNING.
62, UPPER SFYMOUR-STREET, AUG. 26, 1826.

This undersigned, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister. Plenipo-
tentiary of the United States of America, had not seen the Order
in Council of the 27th of July last, on the day (the 17th inst.)
when he had the honour of an interview with Mr. Canning, his
Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Had he then been aware of the precise import of the order in
question, and of the provisions of the several Acts of Parliament to
which it refers, the undersigned would have thought it his duty
to make the observations to which he now begs leave to call Mr.
Canning's attention.
It appears that his Majesty's Government was vested with
two distinct authorities, applicable to the intercourse between his
Majesty's Colonies and the United,States.
By the 4th section of the Act of Parliament of the sth July,
ISt?,5, it was enacted, that the privileges granted by the law of
navigation to foreign ships to trade with the British possessions
abroad, should he limited, with respect to countries not having co-
lonial possessions, to the vessels of such as should place the com-
merce and navigation of Great Britain, and of her possessions
abroad, iapon the footing of the most favoured nation, unless his
Majesty, by his Order in Council, should, in any case, deem it ex-
'pedient to grant the whole, or any part, of such privileges, to the
ships pf any foreign country, although the said conditions should
not in all respects be Waled by such country.
And, by two other Acts oi Parliament, passed in the fourth
and fifth years of the reign of his present Majesty, authority was
given to levy Additional or countervailing tonnage duties on ves-
sels, and additiooat or countervailing duties of Gistorns, on goods
imported and exported, in vessels belonging to any f:-.--sign coun-
try, in which higher ditOes were levied on British vessels, or o 4
goods imported or exported in British vessels, than on vessels of
such country, or on similar goods whit 4 imported or exported in
vessels of such country,
Both authorities have been resorted to in the Order in Council
of the 27th July last.
On the ground that the condition referred to in the Act of
Parliament of sth July, 1825, having not in all respects been
fulfilled by the Government of the United States, the privileges so
granted to foreign ships cannot lawfully he enjoyed by ships of the
said States, unless speeislly granted by his Majesty in Council,
the said privileges are again thns granted by the Order in Coun-
cil, but with the express proviso th4t, the said privileges, or, in
other words, the intercourse in American vessels, between the
United States and the British Colonies, shall absolutely cease on
the first of December next, so far as respects Smith America,
the West indie;, the Bahama Islands, Bermuda, and Newfourals
land, and, on some other o)9e/went days, so far as respects the
British possessions on the Weswn Coast of Africa, the Cape of
Good Liope, Mauritius, Ceylon, Neu, jjollarul, and Van Die-
fnan's Land.

411(1, ina.srnnels as British vessels, entering the pacts of the
United States front British Wonies, are charged with addizioita).
tonnage do.i of ninety-four cents per On, and with an addition
of ten per cent. en the import duty, payable on the wile goods
when imported in American vessels, a countervailing fluty, deem-
ed equivalent in amount, is by the Order of, council laid, during
the time that the :an rcourse is permitted to- continue, on Ame-
rican vessels, and on •coods imported in American vessels entering
the ports of his Majesty possessions in North and South Ame-
rica, and in the West Indies.

_
There is not, if the undersigned is rightly- ihformed, a single
act of the Government of the:United States which can, in the
view taken of the suhject.by that of his Majesty, be considered as
not fulfilling the condition contemplated by the Act of Parliament
of the sth July, 1t325, as not placing the commerce and naviga-
tion 0; Great Britain, anti of her possessions abroad, upon the
footing-4 the most favoured nation, excepting only the continn-
sore of •the .4criminating tonnage duty of ninety-four cents per
ton s.ti British .vi eels, awl of the addition of ten per cent. on the
oi
ordinary tinty charge.i ~-;p cargoes imported in British vessels enter-
in.- tht, porta .cf the ,12344 ad States from the British Colonies.
Both the
,measures.cnahraceo 41 Oae.Ortlgr in Council, the coun-
tervailing an:Jes, and the discooa,lntt4ce of the intercourse, are
founded on one a..rd the same fact--,the ,csa*pance of the United
States' discriminattn; duties. And, the y
c4.oloailing duty
which has. by the Order in Cowl!
keen lair# deemed equivalent theri,.t°'
on
.utteiti-eiefli,ortu vessels,
ss and. goods imported in American
vessels Thi, Anthill Colonies, was alone suffi-
, rient to plate the British. and Araler:i.ai; vessels, employed in the
intercourse between those Colonies and thy r pited States, on the'
footing of the most perfect equality,
It does not belong to the undersignod •to question the of
the measures which _Greas,Britaia may proper to adopt re-
specting the trade.with,het &i lon ies.
lie only infers, from the Acts of Parliament pasited on that
subject durins the last four Years, that the intercourse between
the united States and the,ltritishr-Colnnies in the Wett Indies,
South - America, and other place,, -to She extent anthoriied by
those Acts, is considered, bY lus Majesty's Government, as bene-
ficial to those. Colonierip and the British ernpire nt large.
With this conviction, and the onlyineqtislity supposed to exist-
having bees removed by the countervailing duties, the under-
signed has been .011ableito drover the motive for interdicting al-
together,
after a fine, SU far as respects the British -
i)osses-
sions in the West ..1411:4,-South America, and several other
places an interenurse benefit to both parties, -and which
might, in confopnity %Al.?: the Oct of pArliameut,,have, if deem
ed
expedient, heeu iciad444eiy continued .n those Colonies,
in
the' same manrwr.
as hasbeeµ 4:.; )e- as respects they;,!,ritisli posse,
*ions of North America.
Wholly unable, ,therefore,, to assign 4 for the contem-
plated suspension of . the intercourse. in
.que.stiogs, the undersigned
apprehends that, for the very reason that the objent in view can-
not be muleratoed, it may be misconstrued. •
Having instruction DI) a contingency ,which y7,,s not ki,e_
seen, he ca at this time, only express his regret, that a measure
which cannot be viewed favotarablyby his .Government, should

Live been adopted at the moment iwben he was authorised to
renew the negociations on that subject, and with a well-founded
hope, from the liberal tedor of his instructions, that an ar-
rangement, founded on principles of mutual convenience to both
parties, might be concluded.

It is well known that the delay in that respect was due to
causes not• under the controul of the United States, principally
to the state of health of Mr. King, which has ultimately de-
prived them. of his services.

The reasons of the marked preference given by the Govern-
ment of the United States to an arrangement by treaty, instead
of regulations adopted by both countries, are sufficiently obvious.
It is highly important for-all the parties concerned, essential for
the security of commercial or agricultural operations, that the in-
tercourse should be plaCed on a more permanent and explicit
footing than- it- Can be by reciprocal laws, liable to he modified or
revoked at .any time, at the will of either party, and not always
easily understood by those on whom they operate. And the ob-
stacles which have prevented the United States from accepting
the intercourse contemplated by the Act of Parliament, which
could only be done in foto, and by complying with terms on
which they had not been consulted, may, it is believed,. be easily
removed by modifications essential to . them, and which will not,
it is thought, he. fount' inconsistent . with the interest of Great
Britain.

The undersigned has taken•a view only of the -general tenor of
the Order in Council, and does not think it necessary to advert
to some of its details. He believes the omission of a special men-
tion of the trade with the British provinces in the East Indies, in
that clause which makes a special exception as respects that with
the British possessions in Europe, to be purely accidental. And
he takes it for granted, that it is not intended to extend the coun-
tervailing duties to the intercourse by land or inland navigation,
between the United States and the British possessions in North
America, if it shall he found, as the undersigned believes it to
he the fact, that the discriminating duties of the United States do
not apply to that intercourse.
The undersigned avails himself of this opportunity to pray Mr.
Canning to accept -the assurances of his perfect consideration.
The Rt. Hon. G. Canning, &c. ALBERT GALLATIN.