Alexandria daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1803-1808, 1805-07-17


against, although the colony was at that
very time iii state OF the greatest distress,
and many whites and negroes had actually
persisted of famine, or of diseases which
famine had provoked. Al this very period
supplies of -four, embarked in this king
dom Tor the colonies, were by order actu-
ally relandcd aud retained
Lord Sheaieidis here shewnte have CEN
sured the Licences, without stating the ur-
gent circumstances which rendered them
absolutely indispensable. 1t is also proved
that he charges the merchants and planters
with seeking an unlimited intercourse with
America, while they only solicit THAI the
wisdom Of the legislature should provide
eifectuat means for carving on that re-
stricted communication, without which the
islands cannot snbsist, and which Great
Britain has hitherto allowed. u
Mr.. Jordan is anxious not to entrench
on the claims Of the parent state; he ac-
knowIedges her right TO monoPol'ze the
whole trade of her colonies, and all IT'S
appurtenances, imports, exPorts and car
rage: but if from choice or necessity, she
abandons any part of this commerce, as IL
the case of the present instance with regard
to the more heavy articles required by the
| colonists, she ought either to leave them
| to supply the defect in their own way, or
else should efeciually MAKE this provision
on their behalf.
The British government sanctioned the
| intercourse, bat it provided an Insufficient
channel for II; and when the legislature
had granted such permission, shall it be a
| reproach to the planters and merchants to
require that without which the grant ia in-
efectual, that without which thsy must have
died of famine, and the produce have per-
| ished for the want of the means of pack
| age? Yetit is sucha dispensation with
the acquisitions of an imperfect act OF par
Lament which the noble Lord so strongly
censu. es- 1t is not dispensing power, as
opposed to,a regular and established law,
| that forms the burden of has lamentation,
but the existence of the dispensations in a
| ny shape: yet the real situation of things
| proclaim tha, the islands would have been
depopulated, and their produce wasted, it
the act ofparliament had been as he desir.
ed, vigorously Enforced.
1t is here Justly observed that if Great
Britain allowsa colony to carry on branch
of commerce with another state it ought TO
be governed by the same policy with that
which regulates the like internoerse on the
| mar. country. Now Great
Britain allows goods to be imported in its
own shipping, and in that of the state of
which they are the produce /; the principal
navigation laws are therefore founded in
national reciprocity. and Il would be impos.
sIble to pass more strict navigation statutes,
seeing that they effect other states as well
as the stare enacting them. In our traffic
then, with another nation, the ships of that
nation and the ships Of this country iudif-
ferently import the goods belonging to that
nation.
If we place colony in the same situation
with regard to branch of commerce, it is
natural that the same rule should be OBJ
served namely, shatths goods imported
should be brought indifsren,ly in the
shipping of Great Britain, or of the colooy,
or In the shipping of the country whence
they are derived.
MIR. Jordan, who views its subject in all
its bearings, rightly remarks that another
state is aparty in this matter; that we must
legislate with her in view az well as our
selves; and THAI we ought to observe the
reciprocity which is consulted in the chief
navigatioa acts. We may enact that We
shalt export or import in colonial or Bri.
tish bottoms between the ,lony anu Ame-
RIGA, bnt America viii have ght to COM
plain of the want of-reciproeiy, and most
probably will not fail TO exercise that right,
Tas colony, quoad this particular trade
should be regarded as idenAafed with the
MctroPole aud the same rule should d.
rect the Intercourse with foreign states.