The Statesman.
London, England, 1812-10-17 00:00:00

431ERIG'A.

rttriets from a Memorial, addressed to the Pre.
&dent of the Unit,4l States, by more than 1500 of
tie inhabitant.; of the county of Rockingham, in,
New };trop-hire, on the sth day of August, 1812

64 %ire have ‘citutss.ll, with sincere and deep re- I
Fret, a system of policy pursued by the General Go-
vernment, from the embargo of 1807, to the present
time, tendieg most obviously, in our view, to the
xlestroction of the commerce of these States.
" alarm excited in our minds by the favourite!
'end lung continued ' Restrictive System,' is raised
rill higher by the late I)2claration of War against
Great iiritaiti ; an event which, we 'believe, in the
present defenceless circumstances of the country,
4111 be productive of evils of incalculable magnitude.
The impressment of our seamen, which forms
the most plausible and popular of the alleged causes
of war, we believe to have been the subject of great 1
misrepiesentation. The number of these cases has
been extravngantly exaggerated. Every enquiry on
I:,e subject strengthens our conviction, that the re-
puted number bears little relation to the true num-
ber. We are among those to whom instances of im-
pressment, if they did actually exist to any consi-
do.% able extent, must be known; yet we cannot find
them out. Some of the Members of this Meeting
have been constantly employed in commercial pur-
suits, and have had ships on the ocean from the
peace of 1783, until the ocean became unnavigable,
as to us, by the embargo of 1807; and yet during
all that time have never suffered the loss of one na-
tive American seaman by impressment. Other Mem.
bens of this Meeting have, as masters of vessels, long
inhabited, as it were, en the seas, and have been
visited hundreds of times by British shio of war,
and never had an American seaman taken from them
by impressment.
" If so many of our seafaring fellow-citizens
were actually in bondage, they must have been taken
from the inhabitants of the Atlantic coast. They
mould be from among our brethren, sons, relations,
anal friends. . . .

44 It is well worthy of notice, that the greatest
am meta feeling on this subject of impressments,
a•al tae greatest disposition to wage war on that ac-
count, are entertained by the Representatives of
owe S ates which have no seamen at all of their
own; while those sections of the community, in
wvic m 're than three-fourths of the mariners of the
Unit d States have their homes, are, by great majo-
rities, a„aiost that war, among the professed ob-
jects of vv hich, the release of impressed seamen forms
so paiucipal a hgure.
" It is well known that England pretends to no
right of impressing our seamen. She insists only that
are has a right to the service of her • own stiljnts, in
time ct war, even though foul d serving on hoard the
au rci.ant ships of other tin'ions. This claim we sup-
rose to he neither haulm& d nor hovel. It is re-
co;ttized by the public law of Europe, and of the ci-
vilized werld. Writers of the highest authority
maintain, that he right belongs to all nations. For
the same ref is n, •py the), t Mit the father of a family
may &mond the %id of his children to defend himself
and his house, a nation may call home her subjects
t. her v!efencc and protection in time of war.
'• But A. this were not so, is our nation to pluuge
into a rviltous wai, in order to settle a question of
relat:vo ii,;ht between the Government of a foreign
nation and the subjects of that Government? Are
we to li. ht the battles of British seamen ? Nay more
—are we to espouse their cause, in opposition to the
Cause ocr native mariners?

"Fatal, indeed, would it be to the important
interests of the navigating states, if the consequence
of this %% ar he, that the American flag shall
give the Anievicati dm vector to al! who sail undo
it, ;Ind thus invite thousands of foreign seamen to
#oter into out service, and th. ust aside our own native
citizens. . _

‘‘ England has always professed a willingness to
adjust this subj. ct by amicable arrangement. lihe has
riveatrdly called on us to do our part towards effecting
such adjus:ment. She has reminded us of the facility,
we may say the falsity, with w hick American protec-
tions are obtained ; of the frequent instances, in
which Irishmen, anti even men that cannot speak a
word of our language, are found with American
p:otectio:ts is their pockets.. She has expressly and
cflicial'y offered to prohibit, by severe laws, all itn-
m nt flout American vessels, if the American
er ,meat would etutct laws prohibiting American
°Meets from granting protections or certificates of
citizenship to British subjects. She has, also,
through her Minister, offered to restore event native
ewar.n that our Government could name, as being
under impressment. For years preceding the Decla-
ri.f et, of War, our Government Las been, in a man-
tle , sil •t on this sul j et. When the arrangement
was oh t.e wilts Mr. Et skint., the present Administra-
tion themselvos did not consitlor any existing
ott the subj..ct of impressment as insuperable
o sticks to peace.
" l'he blockade, and Orders in Council,—the
other causes of sar,bear no better examination than
the •illyte.l of impressment. The blockade, now so
g! onu• to be endutud, we know was regarded, at
1:;C` time it was laid, as a measure favourable to our
ititt..e,ts. We know this, upon the express declara-
tion t-f Mr. Minroo, then our Minister in England.
'',Ve hate his own wools, that it would be regarded
4 in 9 hut-unable light, and that it ' promised to be
•uti-fac:oty our commercial interests.'
" by utast Itain of reasoning this favour is now
turnqi into an Hui v, and an injury of st!ch magni-
tude a: to justify- war, we arc utterly at a loss to
emapi _ _

" We are cg.r.ily unsatisfied with the arguments
nceti, to prose that the Th.:rees of France were re-
p a.ed in Novmher, 1810. Against such supposed
s...iscal ths: French Decrees,' we have the express
ci.a...taratiuts of the Finch Government itself, as late
as 'March, 1812, aging that those Decrees did
shell exist. We have also had daily evidence of their
operation, in the destruction of our property; and
souse 'Members of this Meeting have convictions of
the existence and operation of those Decrees, down
to the very moment of our Declaration of War ; which
uonvictions being produced by great and repeated
I,ersotsal losses, in the seizures, detention, confisca-
r I,n, and burnings, under those very decrees, are
not likely ',..,Rmoved, by any ingenious comments