Star.
London, England, 1812-08-03 00:00:00

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I

diMERIC/IN PAPERS.

WASHINGTON, JUNE 10.
HOUSE OF RFPREt•EN I'ATIVES, JUNE 9.

!MESSAGE TO THE SENATF. AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTA-
TIVF.s OF THE UNITED STATES.
Thy before Congress Copies of the Letters which have passed
fierween :he Secretary of State and the Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister Ph nipotentiary of great Britain. (Signe.d) •
Jane R, 13120 JAMi:S MADISON.
CORRESPONDENCE ON THE ORDERS IN COUNCIL.
SIR. FOSiElt TO Wt. MONROE.
Washington, June 4,1812.
~SIII.—SiEEE I had the honour of seeing you at your
office yesterday, I have perceived an article in the
public prints, stated to he extracted from an English
Newspaper, and purporting to be an Micial Declara-
. 'lion of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, that
• the Orders in Council will he, and are, absolutely re-
voked, from the period when the Berlin and Milan
Decrees shall, by some authentic act of the French
Government, publicly promulgated, be expressly and
unconditionally rerealed. A considerable time has
elapsed since, by order of my Government, I had the
buyout of urging to you die txpdiency of procuring
such an authentic act from the French Government;
and in all probability the above declaration may have
keen issued in the confident expectation that the Go-
vernment of the United states woc:d have been able
to produce it ere this.
At all events, Sir, considering the important ra- '
tine of the above-mentioned article, and the prcba-
bilii7 that I shall have soon-to be the organ of some
official communication to the American Government
in relation to it, I cannot but trust, that no measure I
will meanwhile be adopted by the Congress which
. would defeat the endeavour of procuring a complete
' recOnciliation between our two countries.
Should any embarrassments arise in consequence
of the declaration on the subject of the proposed re-
vocation of the Orders in Council above alluded to,
resting at present upon a mere statement in news-
.) papers, it will to doubt occur to your recollection,
that on the enactment of Orme Orders a measure was
taken by Congress for the purpose of meeting them,
when they were as yet known but through the public
prints.—l have '&c. (Signed) A. J. FOSTER
)JR. FOSTER TO MR. MONROE.
Washington, June 4, 1812.
• SIR—I must rely.upon your candour to feel for
the embarrassment into which your Note of this day
• has thrown me. Willing to.comply with the request
contained in it, I yet cannot but be sensible that in
snaking any portion of a dispatch, from his Majesty's
Secretary of State to me, the subject of a correspon-
, deuce between us, I should not he just:fied to my
own Government. I believe there is no example of
• a correspoadence of such a nature, and I should be
# very loth to, establish the precedent.
When I had tie honour to make the communica-
tion of Lord Castlereagh's dispatch to you in conse-
,j (pence of its being left t ) my own discretion to do
so, I did it hecal.se I had reason to think, from the
-number of my letters which there remained unan-
swered at your dike, such a communication if made
through a note, might have shared the fate of the
rest. You will recollect that it was at your own re-
quest that I acceded to the dispatch being cornmuni-
I cats(' to the Piesident ; and that it was also at your
!; instance, as beiiig the only regular way in which the
3 subject could come btfore the American Govern-1

tent, that I determined to tuite to you a note foun-
, 41,:d upon it. You were :mare at the latter end of

s.
last week, that such was my determination, which I
repeated to yau thrr;ugh Mr. Graham, who called
i upon me the 30th ultimo, to ask me when I contem-
p
i tied seneirg it to your office. The notice must
• have reached you, and been read before any message
-could have been sent from the Executive to Congress.
I cannot, S:r, considLr my note as liable to the
charge of ambiguity, which you now impute to it.
The abandonment of our most important. maritime
rights is more extensively than ever connected, by
• * France, with a demand of the repeal of our Orders in
Council, and while you are entirely silent as to how
far America concurs wish her on this point of vital
interest Ito Great Britain, without even a prospect of
a reply from you to our just complaints; as expressed
an my note on the coin:idence of the attitude taken,
by America with the hostile system of France, I can-
' not but be aware of the difficulties to which I should
expose myself in entering into an explanation on any
• insulated passage in it. I might, perhaes, by conti-
oued silence on your part, never afterwards have an
opportunity of making farther explanation ; and you
are well aware bow frequently points taken uncon-
• ;meted with what precedes or f )llows them, are liable
to misconstruction, But, Sir, as a reason paramount
to every other for my not committing myself to an
. explanatiin on any single topic without the discus-
. , aiorys between us were to be continued, is the publjca-
tion of the highly important declaration of his Royal
liiehncss the Prince Regent, to which I had the ho-
ot ur to allude in my note to you of this morning.—
' You will there find stated, in as explicit and authen-
tic a manner as language can convey, the grounds
upon which his Majesty's Orders in Council will be
aevtiked. I cannot, it is true, as yet, refer you offs- 1
t! orally to, this document, but I may now be in the ex.l
li putation of receiving it, in a formal state, within a 1
few days, and together with it, every explanation pos-
t: sible ‘vlsich you' may require. i Siened)
s- The
,1-lotious able James Niori*oe, Bcc. AG. J. FOSTER.'
; .
Nli. NONEDE TO Ain. FosTott.
Dalartewise of State, June 6, IRI 2.
Ste,-I have htsd the honour to receive your letter
of the 4th inst. The receipt of that of May Sllth, has
. already been acknowledged.
; As these letters relate to the same subject, the
Orders in Council, I *hap take both into my view in
this reply,
I am not disposed to make any unnecessary diffi-
cu'ty,on account of the informality of the document .I
alluded to ip the last letter. if the declaration of the i
Prince Regent was such as to atf.rd the satisfaction 1
recrired, it would be received in any form entitled to I
• credit, s ith great interest., as a token t f just and
: fritusily sentiments in your Government towards the 1
Unitad States. Bat nothing is seen in that act of
;le character which you atnibute to St. Without
=moving a single objection to the principle nn which
Orpr4ers in Cosincil were issued, and •have beer;
lar .ptained, it afford.: a complete justification of the
I demand heretofore made t a your gtaverumeot for
6-4 rgr4l..
Wl* OpYtqa Goverment bas sorppl44o Ow the