The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1808-07-19

without obtaining redress Nevertheless I:
will afford them much satisfaction to reflect,
THAT they have been the means of bringing
lDefore you SO great body of important la
formation, for Calculating a subject as diff
tcult as it is momentous, and To know that,
whatever fate may await their petition,
they have done their best to enter a las
ting protest upon the Journals of the coun-
TRY, against measures more dangerous to
its prosperity than any that were ever be-
fore attempted. Plans of this sort, sir, are
not in their nature long-lived and after
F, these Orders shall be known no more, or on
ly remembered in the ruinous effects they
may have produced, the mass of evidence
which the petitioners have piled up at your
bar, will remain, not perhaps to deter PERM
cious sChemers from again meddling w tn the
commerce OF the country, but surely to warn
the country from listening to their Counsels
| Sir. in proceeding to state the import of
this body of evidence, it is necessary that
should go back, in the first place, to the de-
| crees OF the French government which are
stated to have given rise to the measures
complained Of; and between which and those
measures there appears to be some dispute,
as to the occasion of the calamties that have
arisen. an. o. .:
Late in the year 1906, Bonaparte, in mo-
| ment, it should seem, of citation, unhappily
by no means unnatural in his situation, tho't
of issuing decree which might affect the
| trade and navigation of this country, as ex-
tensivcly as those other DEGREES which he
had issued upon the continent, and had exc
cuted by half million of armed men, This
decree was not then for the first time tried,
| nor was it accounted by him an experiment
| OF a very novel description, although recei-
we'd IN this country as something wholly new.
1t had been repe atedly tried before, and had
IN every instance manifestly failed Not to
go back to the war of 1889, l may only OBJ
serve, that in the war of 1856, the principle
was broadly laid down by the French ge-
Vernmcnt that the seizure Of any manufac-
lures or produce of the British dominions
should render the whole cargo. among which
they were found, liable to conhscation. To-
wards the end of the American war, SINH
larprnciple was partially attempted to be in
troduced: but of these | need not say much
for N the course of the revolutionary war.
two DEGREES similar to the former, though
still more near the Berlin decree, were issu-
cd Of these 1t NAV be necessary for me to
mention the substance. The first of them
was issued in 1895, and after variety of o.
Their clauses, it subjects all ships CARRYING
British goods TO seizure and detention We
find not merely the detail of the Berlin de-
cree introduced as to the goods, bat also the
provision requiring a certificate of origin
u,
which was deemed sine qua non for saving
the ship and cargo from detention. A sml-
lar decree was issued in 1900, after Bora
parties arrival in France. 1t was generally
promulgated. and remains as far as any
such decree can be in force In 1897 those
bellgerent principles were extended from.
the to affect the ship; and hold in my
hand. decree issued by the council of Five
Hundred, enact;ng I'll at the characters of
Sh oil hn dafa ~,
| In consequence o. this enactment, every YES
sell loaded in whole or in part with English
! goods, was declared lawful prize. The Sc
cond article declares that no foreign vessel,
which IN the Course of her voyage shall have
entered an English port, shall be permitted
to enter any port III the French Dominions
! 1t is surely needless for me TO prove that
although these orders were thus promulga-
ted, they never were executed need not
BRING evidence to shew that these commerce.
a. DEGREES were rugatory. After they were
issued, the progress of our exports proceeded
not merely increasing, but in a, short period
almost to double The amount of former times
IL is notorious that France, in spite of all
sdch prohibitions, has been consuming dali
~ more and more of the produce of this
country, down to the period of the Berlin
edict. But, however notifications these boasts
may have proved, the enemy, it seems, de-
'Si "''iic' pHIS lItoTe 10 u V lneir erect. lie
resolved to have another decree at us and at
our trade, expecting perhaps to frighten if
he could not hurt u.s. Accordingly, in the
month of November 1906, he Issued that one
which forms the pretext for our Orders in
Council. This decree consists of three
branches. 1t condemns all cargoes of Bri-
tlsh produce or manufacture it threatens
the seizure of all vessels going to or from En-
gland /; and it shuts the ports of the enemy
against all vessels which have last cleared out
from British ports.
1t may be asked what chance was there
that such decree as this should succeed !!
Was it that France had determined sudden
ly to assemble all her fleets, and venture to
send them to sea, which she had not dared to
do before! Was it that she then intended to
engage all cur blockadng and cruizing squa-
drons, which till now she never burst look
! in the face9 Was it that she purposed in
TINS manner TO beat us out of the water, and
destroy, as it were, our naval superiority ?
Or was it that without these preliminary
steps. she was, by her mere influence and
great name upon tie continent of Europe, to
stop all vessels sailing upon the sea to or
from England, to seize every article of our
produce which could he found floating on the
| ocean, to do that which we, even we, with