The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1808-05-03

war unprecedented, was committed. The
Presidents Proclamation was subsequent
iact, and was avowedly founded upon many
similar aggressions, of which that was only
the most aggravated.
Il If then Britain could with any colour of
reason claim that the general question of
limpressment should be laid out of the case
altogether, she ought upon the principle of
reciprocity to have laid equally out ot the
lease, the proclamation, a measure SO easily
lseparable from it. and in its nature merely
defensive. When therefore she made the re-
peal of the proclamation an Indispensable
preliminary to all discussion upon the nature
and extent of that reparaton which she had
offered, she refused to treat with us upon
the footing of an Independent power. She
insisted upon an act of self-degradaticn on
our part, before she would even tell us, what
redress she would condescend to grant for a
tgreat and acknowledged wreng. This was
a condition which she could not bat know to
be inadmissible, and is OF itself proof nearly
conclusive that her Cabinet never intended
to make for that wrong any PREPARATION at
all.
But this is not e.il--It cannot be forgotten
that when that atrocous deed was commit
tied, amidst the general burst of indignation
which resounded from every part of the u
mon, there were among us a small number
lot persons, who upon the opinion that Berke
lley's orders were authorised by his govern
ment, undertook to justify them in their full
est eXtcnt-These ideas probably first pro-
pagatcd by British official characters, in this
Icountry, were persisted in until tho disavow-
al of the British government took away the
necessity for perse7erng in them, and gave
Inotice where the next position was to be
taken his patriotic reasoning however
lhad been so satisfactory at Halifax, that
complimentary letters were received from
| Admiral Berkeley himself, highly approving
the spirit in which they were inculcated, &
) iremarking how easily Peace between the
United States and Britain might be preserv-
| ed, if that measure of our national rights
; could be made the prevailing standard of the
/ icountry.
: When the news arrived in England, al
though the general sentiment of the nation
5 was mot prepared for the formal avowal
/. and Justification of this unparalleled aggres-
sion, yet there were not wanting persons
there, ready to claim and maintain the right
OF searching national ships for deserters-
: 1t was said at the time, but for this we must
OF Course rest upon the credit of Unofficial au-
I lthority, to have been made serious euee-
. ton in the Cabinet Council; nor was it's
: determination there ascribed tothe eloquence
: OF the gentleman who became the official
, organ of its communiCation-Add to this a
! circumstance, which without claiming the
yet its weight upon the common sense of
: mankind; that in all the daily newspapers
: known to be in the ministerial interest,
Berkeley was justified and applauded in G.
very variety of form that publication could
assume, excepting only that of official Pro
clamation-The only part of his orders there
, disapproved was the reciprocal offer which
he made of submitting his own ships to be
: searched in return-that was very unequivo-
cally disclaimed-The ruffian right of superb
, or force, was the solid.base upon which the
s claim was asserted, and SO familiar was this
I argument grown to the .casuists of British
national Jurisprudence, that the right of a
British man of war to search an American
5 trigate, was to them q self-evident proof a.
; gainst the right of the American frigate to
search the British man of war. The same
tone has been constantly kept up, until our
accounts of latest date and have been re-
Gently further invigorated by a very explicit
: call for.'war with the United States, which
! they contend would be of no possible injury
to Britain, and which they urge upon the mi
nistry as affording them an excellent oppor-
l tunity. to accomplish dismem6erment Of
This Union.---These sentiments have even
been avowed in Parliament, where the noble
man who moved the address of the house
5 OF Lords in answer to the kings speech, de-
clared that the right of searching national
ships, ought to be maintained against the A
mericans, and disclaimed only with respect
, to European sovereigns.
/ In the mean time Admiral Berkeley, By a
court martial Of his own subordinate officers,
, hung one of the men taken from the Chesa-
peake, and called his name Jenkin Ratford.
There was, according te the answer so fire.
l quently given by the Lords of the Admiral
} ty,f upon applications for the discharge
| of impressed Americans, no such man on
l board The shin. The man thus executed
had been taken from the Chesapeake by the
: name of Wilson. 1t is said that on his trial
he was identified by one or two witnesses
who knew him, and that before he was
turned of, he confessed his name to be Rat
ford and that he was born in England---But
it has also been said that Ratford is now liv-
, ing in Pennsylvania---and after the charac-
, ter which the disavowal of admiral Berkley's
own government has given to his conduct,
: what confidence can be claimed or due to
the proceedings of a court martial of his as
seciates held to sanction his proceedings.
I 1.-The three other men had not even been
, demanded in his orders; they we're taken
by the sole authority of the British search
, ing lieutenant, after the surrender of the
Chesapeake. There was not the shadow of
a pretence before the court martial that they
, were British subjects, or born in any of the
: British dominons. Yet by this court mar
tioI thr1y nJ IN