The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1809-12-07

faith already manifested. the farther com
pIacency TO the wishes of the United States
OF adopting the form of communication mos,
agreeable to them, and of giving through me
the explanation in question. I have there
tore no hesitation in informing you. that His
Majesty was pleased to disavow the agree
ment concluded between you and Mr.. Frs.
kine. because 1t was concluded in violation
Oh that gentleman.s instructions. and altoge-
Their without authority to subscribe to the
terms of it. These instructions, 1 low TN.
derstand by your letter. as well as from the
obvious deduction which I took the liberty
OF making in mine of the 11th instant. were
at the time, in substance, made known to
you; no stronger illustration therefore can
be given OF the deviation from them which
occurred. than by reference to the terms
OF your agreement.
Nothing can be more notorious than the
fre9uencywith which, in the course of a
complicated negotiation, ministers are fur
nlshed with graduation of conditions, on
which they may be successfully authorised
70 conclude: So common is the case which
you put alphabetically, that in acceding to
the justice of your statement, 7 feel myself
!mpei!ed to make only one observation upon
IT, which is, that it does not strike me as
bearing upon the consideration of the unau.
thorized agreement concluded here, in as
much as in point of fact Mr.. Erskinc had
no such graduated instruction. You are al
ready acquainted with that which was given
and have had the honor of informing Won
that 1t was the only one by which the condi
tions OH wnich ne was to conclude were pre-
scrioed. 30 far from the terms, which he
was actually induced to accept, having been
contemplated in that instruction. he himself
states that they we're substituted by Won in
lieu of those originally proposed.
1t may perhaps be satisfactory that 7
should say here that most WILLINGLY sub-
scribe, on this occasion, to the highly res
pcctable authority which you have quoted
and join issue with you upon the essential,
which that authority requires to constitute q
right to disavow the act of a public minister
1t is not immarerial to observe on the qua
LITIGATION CONTAINED in the passage YOU have
quoted-as it implies the case of minister
concluding IN virtue Of full f,o4ver. To
TINS II would suffice to answer that MIR. Frs
kline had no full f,ozoer !; and his act conse
quently does not come within the range Of
your Quotation. although il cannot be forgot
ten that the United States have, at no very
distant period, most freely exercised the
right OF Withholding their ratification from
even the authorised act of their own dipIo-
matte agents. done under the avowed sancti-
on ola full power.
conceive that what has been alreadv
said establishes beyond the reach of doubt
or controversy that His Majesty's minister
did violate his instructions, and the conse
quent right in His Majesty to disavow an
act so concluded. That His Majesty had
strong and solid reasons for so doing will
appearnot only from his instructions having
been violated, but from the circumstance
that the violation of them involved the sacri.
nee OF great system of policy deliberately
ADOPTED and acted upon in just and necessa
ry retaliation of the unprecedented modes of
hostility resorted to by his enemy.
mere appears to have prevailed through.
out the whole of this transaction a funda
mental mistake, which would suggest tina,
His Majesty had proposed to propitiate the
government OF the United States in order to
induce 1t to Consent to the renewal of the
commercial intercourse between the two
countries; as if such had been the relations
between Great Britain and America, that the
advantages OF that intercourse were wholly
on the side of the former; and as if in any
arrangement. whether commercial or politi
cal, His Majesty could condescend to barter
OBJECTS OF national policy and dignity for
permission to trade with another country.
Without minutely calculating what NAV
be the degree of pressure felt at Paris bv
the difference in the price Of goods whether
landed at Havre or at Hamburg, will. in
my turn. appeal to your judgment, sir whe-
Their 1t be not strong and solid reason,
worthy to guide the councils of great and
powerful monarch, to set bounds to that spi.
rit OF encreachment and universal dominion
which would bend all things to it's own stan
hard! Is it nothing in the present state of
the world, when the agents of France au
thorItatlvely announce to their victims that
Europe is submitting and surrendering by
degrees" that the world should know, that
there is a nation which by that Divine good.
ness so strongly appealed to in the paper to
which ! allude," is enabled to falsify the as
tom Is 1T not important at such a moment.
that Europe and America should be convin.
ced, that, from whatever countries honora
bic and manly resistance to such a spirit
may have been banished, it will still be found
in the sovereign of the British nation and in
the hearts of his subjects!
AS to the precautions taken in England
tn insure from injury npon this occasion the
citizens OF the United States, and which
appear to you to be even vet insufficient. /
am confident that in every doubtful case the
usual liberality of our tribunals will be exer-
cised in determining upon the circumstances
of it !; and it was a. Mr.. Pinkney's express
requisition, that additional Instructions were
given to the commanders of His Majesty's
ships of war and privateers to extend to
vessels trading 10 the colonies, plantations
and settle meuts Of Holland the same ex-
emption fropl capture and moestation, as
was granted to vessels sailing for any of the
ports of Holland