Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1809-03-30

Is 1 c1nEbt the animal t0St HtSns,
Is And viewed it Ger by candle light;
% u naark'd II svell, 'tzvas black as JET,
/" You stare, bit sire Tue gos IL get,
e md can produce it--ltray SIR 40,
&C I'Hiay nsy life the thing is blue y
s. md I'Hbe sworn, that zohea yon've ssem
g 7nereatils, y0uW pronounce At green. !.
Such was the diversity ofopinion on <the
subject ofthe Cameleon's colour, ana no
less difference exists, it appears, among COM
r,entators upon the on-intercourse la" late
H. enacted, equally various and indetensi-
BE. One confidently affrns 1t TO be blue,
another. with equal boldness, asserts tito, he
Green. and the secretary of the treasury
Himself. instructs us one day to consider 1t
as green, and the next assures US IT'S GER
\ tainly blue, whilst some amongus ,stlAtfust-
5 ;nnt to their own eyes have the hardloohd to
believe Otis neither one nor the other but
blact or white according to, the degree OF
l;oht or shade in which 1t may be present
Ell RI the beholder.--it would really be
amusing 10 mark the puzzling perplexities
m which the learned secretary is involved,
in attempting to give rational and consist !.
ant meaning to law, IN itself 50 devoId OF
reason or consistency, were we not at the
same time alarmed by The manifestation Of
s temner hostile to the little commerce toie-
fsted bv the law i:self, and a disposition to
extend its penalties and restrictions beyond
What would appear to have beenthe mean
ing Of the legislature. 10 what are we to
attribute the extreme rigorof his construc-
tons Is the ambiguity of the law sufi-
Gent apology for the varying, but ever an
favorable opinions adopted by the treasury
department. or must we rot ra,htr trace the
cause TO disposition in the executive, to
eonnt,ract as TAR as possible, the popular,
and legislative will upon the sublectof com
neree, and BY multiplying ditEcu'ties and
enlbarrassments, so to check commercial en-
tcrprize, that the prediction SO often Teite-
rated. NAV be made good, that should the
emaarso be taken Of, no commerce zvould re-
rain to sss.-That am justifable i'll this
imputation, think the general tenor ct thc
secretarv's Instructions viii prove, but the
particular points to which shall advert, are
the regulations adopted with respect to TO-
reign vessels, and the prohibition against the
sale of American vessels IN foreign ports
T7nd4r the first instructions of the secretary
fore;en vessels were refused a.clearance for
any ports but those which were licensed to
American vessels, but In his last circular,
Ne authorizes the collectors TO grant them
clearances, either in ballast, or with the car
Goes which they have brought IN, either to
French or Britishports without bond, but
( if they clear for licensed port, they must
olive bond in four times thcva u otthe yes
sel and cargo, that they will not 60 to a
French or British port--that is, they may
qo to Guadaloure or Jamaica direct, but
they must not go to Guadaloupe or Jamaica
by the wsv of ST. Bartholemews and this
nnder an act TO interdict commercial inter-
course between the u. S. and G. Britain
and France, and their dependencies. Again,
ne not only prohibits foreign vessels from
TAXING eargoes of American produce to the
norris of G.. Britain and France, but also 70
those ports with which intercourse is per-
rnitted by the law let US examine with
what propriety. The embargo was ne
yer extended at any time to foreign vessels,
but was confined to the vessels and to the
produce and merchandise of the u. States,
and BY the 18th section OF the non-inter-
course law we find it enacted, 8 that so much
of the act laying an embargo on all the ships
end vessels in the ports and harbors OF the
IT. States, and of the several acts supple
mentary thereto, as forbids the departure OF
vessels owned by citizens of the u. States,
and the expartati0n O domestic and foreign
merrhaadtze to any foreign port or Place, DE
and the same is hereby repealed, after the
18th March, 1909, except SO far as they re-
late 10 G.. Britain or France, or their colo
nies or dependencies, or places in the actual
possession of either" If then by the em-