Portland gazette and Maine advertiser., 1808-12-05

tions from which are held out as 70
many favors oonfoling the United
States for the wide fpread defruetion
of their legitimate commerce.
What mutt be iaid as to the other
exceptions, which feem to have
been viewed as claims on the graft
tude of the United States /? Is it an
indulgence 70 lem in carrying on
their trade with the whole continent
of Europe, to be laid under the ne
ceIty of going 6rf to Britiih port
TO accept Britifh liccnce and to pay
a tribute to the Britiih exchequer, as
if We had been refused TO the colo
NAL fituation which once impoied
tkeie monopolizing reftraints (?
What again mult be iaid as to 9TH
er features which we fee blended on
the face of theie regulations !? 1.-THE
policy of them be TO iubje6 an enemy
to privations, why are channels OPEN
cd for Britilh trade with them,
which are fhut to a neutral trade =
If in other cafes, the real object DC
TO admit neutral trade with the
enemy, why is it required that neu-
trail vcfiels ihaIl perform the ceremo-
ny of pafing through Britifh port
when it can have no imaginable ef-
feet, but the known and inevitable
one ofprohibiting the adnii1ion of the
trade into the port of deitination
/ viii not ak why primary arti-
Gle of our productions aud exports,
cotton wool, is to be diitinguifhed,
in its tranit, by heavy impoit not
impofed on other articles, bceaufe it
is frankly avowed, in your explana-
ton of the orders, to be intended as
an encouragement TO Britiih manu-
failures, and check to the rival ones
of France Z fupprefs alto tho
without the fame reaion for il, the
enquiry, why lefs rigorous reftriGions
are apPlyed 70 the trade Of the Barbary
powers, than are enforced againit
that of a nation, fuch as the United
States, and in relations fuch as have
exifted between them and Great
Britain.
/ cannot however PATS without no
tice, the very unwarrantabIe innova-
ton contained in the two Taft of the
orders. In one Of them a certificate
Of the local origin of a cargo, altho'
permitted in the port Of deitination,
by regulations purely domelfic in
both, and ftri6tly analogous in prin-
ciple TO the regulations in the COM
mercial code of @. Britain, is made a
caufc Of capture on the high feas, and
of condemnation IN her maritime
courts. In the other, the falc Of
merchant hip by a belligercnt owner
to neutral although traniaetlon as
legal when fair, as dealing in any
other article, is condemned by gen.
eral rule, without an atom Of proof
or of preinmption, thar the transfer
in the particular cafe is fraudulent
and the property therefore left in an
enemy.
In 6ne, fir, the PRECEDENT fees in the
ediets communicated by you facts al
umed which did not exit, principles
aherted which never can be admit
ted and, under the name Of rctalia-
ton, meafures tranicending the limits
rceoncilable with the facts and the
principles, if both were as correct as
they are unfounded. He fees more
over in the notifications Of this fyf-
tenn, regulations violating equally our
neutral rights and our national foyer-
eighty. He perluades himielf there
fore that your government will fee
in the jultice of the obfervations now
made in addition to thoie had the
honor verbally to fate to you in the
firlt infance, that the United States
are well warranted in looking for a
fpeedy revocation of fyftem which
Is every day augmenting the MATS of
injury for which the United States
have the belt Of claims to redreis.
have the honor to be, &c. sc.
JAMES MADISON.
TIE k0n. David M. EyyEias, Ejg. SIC.