The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1809-08-04

strictions--a Jealous Indignation, angry con
tempt of the American government. the En-
glish papers, catching the popular sentiment. =
conducted by silly editors, under party feelings,
were filed with inyidious reflections on the com.
lparatiye state of the American and English 10
reign trade.
America, it was said, possessed all the foreign
trade OF Europe, and reaped the richest fruits
| from her neutrality. From kind of emotion
| which we know not how TO characterize, except
as an envious spite, every opportunity was eager
| ly taken TO morti,y America, and to avenge our
selves for her mercantile prosperity, by treating
! her, in every necessary or Incidental collision
with us, with the most insulting air % supero-
rty 49,.
! The orders of admiralty were executed in the
| same spirit i'll which they were issued. Every
American ship was searched with the most cx-
IRENE rigor, and principle at length an
| nolinced, and partially acted upon, which if it
had been carried into full practice, would have
| annihiated whatever remained of American Ia
dependence. -.
The right OF arch hitherto confined to goods,
and even to a certain description of goods, was
now extended to men, and Admiral Berkeley, in
the affair Of the Chesapeake, betrayed such eX-
| IRENE ignorance of the law of nations, as to in
sist upon the right of searching AN American ma
tional vessel, and, whea this claim WAS justly
sisted, to prosecute 1t by a direct attack.
In this state of things were the relations OF a.
merica and England, when France issneti the
Berlin order, by which she declared England in a
state of blockade. The French issued an order
which they could not execute, and the English,
by AN absurd kind orret aliation, replied by an or
der, which being accompanied with real force,
gave practical Efficacy to the French system
Between the two orders, America ships could
not visit either Kingdom without being subject to
| the alternative ofseizurc or degrading submis-
sion to the sacrifice of qualities ,usualiy consider
ed as the essential constituents of national indie
pendcnce. ..
In this state of interruption, the American go
vernment, with due consideration for the Anne.
rican interests, and of the peculiarly of their ST.
| tuation, suspended the intercourse between tie
belligerents and America, and ordered strict
embargo III their ports, under the tact under
standing, that it should be raised in favor OF eli
Their power which should repeal it, obBuXious Or
ders.
Such was the relative state of things in which
Mr.. Erskine commenced his negociation-The
| manner in which lie conducted it, and the points
| on which il has been disavowed by the British
government, are important enough to merit Sc
p!rate consideration, and the papers will be
laid before parliament in the ensuing week, we
shall resume this subject in another paper It's
Importance does not seem to be well understood.
We live in an age, in which reyocalions of the
acts fplenipotentiarIes frequent, that the
absurdty, and practical mischief of such breach
es of faith, totally overlooked Who will
hereafter contide in plenipotentares, wien their
acts are thus of common matter, of course reyo-
cab C at pleasure? There are certainly extreme
cases ia which such acts ought to be revocable
but the cases must be extreme, and should be
rare lest they destroy the utility of the thing. g..
But the point OF fact Is, that the disavowal Of
MI. Erskine's act is of piece with the general
conduc of England towards America. Whene-
Yer circumstances nave in any way admitted it,
our tone towards America has always been in
md OIIr huff fri In,
Every new hope on the continent every straw
10 the drowning expectations OF Europe, has but
aggravated this unworthy sentiment. In our
prosperity we have bullied America and when
things are not well with us, we have vented
our strife in Injurious language and unworthy
| conduct towards her. Whilst there were any
hopes in Spain, America could get nothing di
rect from But disappointment brought us to
our senses, and the negociation was renewed.
The coalition war on the continent has suisse
qucntly broken out, and begin TO repent Of our
CondesCens.O6.
In this manner has the American negotiation
been on and oil during some years-Dur de-
mands rising with our hopes and prosperity, and
Our moderation being only co-eXistent with our
disappointment.
As to the immediate point on which Mr. Frs
kine's act is to be disavowed by ministers, it is
not to be collected from the cores pondence
The correspondence on the part of Mr. ErskDe is
business seems full upon his mind, and lie comes
Immediately to the point Ii ne be in any way
wanting, IT is only IN that clrcuitOus equlyoc for
malicy ofthe old diplomacy, i'll which the writer
seems only anxious lest he should be understood
as saying sOmethlng-ln which the first SEN
tence is knot which every succeeding sentence
IS only employed further to perplex.
The French diplomatists formed into school
under Choiseu, grated the school logic and the
law loquacity upon public correspondence. Eve
ny word had its endless appendages, and every
phrase was weighed and measured. Lord
Ma!msbury in England was eminent instance
OF this species OF diplomacy, and lord Liverpool
was formed i'll the same school. The caution,
the precision, the measured gravity, the deco
rum which gracefully avoids every thing of passion
petulance--ail these qualities of the old school
cannot be too much praised but where the bu.
siness is in point, and the parties are both will
ling to come at it, really can see no objection
either III prudence or decorum. MIR. Fox was
an iniIniable example OF this simplicity and rec
tttlde.
Mr. Erskine, with manly directness, acknow-
Lodges, without Disguise, the just violence in
the affair Oftiie Chesapeake he speaks of il
with Ofjustlce, and at the same time with
candor, which cannot but inspire very high O.
pinIOn both of his head and heart
Nothing can be more disgusting than the flip
pancy oisome of the daily papers upon this sub
Ject, who, with the most perfect ignorance of
the public law, continue to maintain what both
parties III government have concurred to disa.
vow.
FROM THE LospoN COURIER.
Il 1NigiSteyidE Paper.