Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1810-03-14
!aIsraprta pale 0s,stts.
(. WEDNESDAY, MARCH IL.

~ = St.sSey. ~ ~ sulo1DBSS,stS. 49, ~. Is
sWzDxEsD1H MARCH ii,
I Fran ne :yi,yhds Rsparies
,EfpEs.s AN EEDMENTs.
The vote Of The Ssnate 10 strike out ali
the restrictive parts Of Mr.. Maeon's bin,
with one exception, has entirely. d;seoucer.
ed the enemies Of free tr.de ip the house Of
representatives,. Is majority of member.
are eviden,iy tired Of the sys,rm which has,
been pursued, and would willingly rels,se
themselves from the bar,hen, i they could
do it withou, tacitly eonfsssing their total !,
iucapaeity and ignorance. Even this they
would have hazarded, if a vote had been
taken on the day thar the bill was retained
from the Senate. Blu. now it Is apprehend-
ed tho wavering members havs been dill.
led, and nothing better can be expected than
that the non intercourse will be suffered to
expire by its own limitation. The benefit.
of free trade will thus be deferred until the
end of the present session Of Congress.
say this is the be.. we can expect. Tor il
the bill now before the house is suffered to
pass, some injurious measure will be eou.
pied with it, probably more dangerous than
any ofthe former experiments. The new
sections offered by Mr. Eppss are Of ,hin
nature. The Object Of these is to au,ho-
rize merchant vessels to arm, and to resist
IN attempt to search them by British cruiz.
sr', or to stop them Cd their way to Frame.
and also to establish conveys to the ssn..
effect. The almost inevitable, effect Of pas.
sing these into q law would be.war with G.
Britain, Itbscomes the house to pau..
and reflect upon consequences before thew
proceed. Is the ground they have a.sum-
ca 'snable and Gun they maintain it? Can
they lawfully authorize resistance to n.
right of search? think not. The rich,
OF search is undoubtedly ancient RIGHT.
winch has been avowed and prac,ised on
oy every maritime. state 10 modern Euron.
hsa right, which. to tie ex,en, contend.
cd for BY these sections, has never been de.
MED. The parties to tho armed neu,ra,;,v
did indeed deny the right to priva.eers, or
even to ships Of war, when the nnerch,p,
vessel attempted to be searched was under
the convoy Of national ship. Bu. the lat.
ter pTe'e"s'0n was explicitly renouuced By
the convention Of Petersburg, in 1901. to
which all those powers were parties. tn.
practice Of Great Britain i. .tsa conceded
to be lawful. Undoubtedly, BY treaty, tn.
abuses incident TO this practice NAV b.
prevented but no neutral state can denv
the right, or attempt fo,eibly to os,t,ue,
the exercise Of it, without CAUSING cer,a;,
war. -.
The United States have admitted Lr an
their commercial treaties, tina. bellisereu,.
may lawfully prevent neutral mrrehan, YES.
sells from Carving to an enemy articles con.
'raoand OF war. Now / would AL NJ,
EpPe'' to point out some mean. BY which
this abuse may be prevented, if the rich.
Of search Is denied. Hth commander f
a British ship Of war eanno. 60 on board .
neutral merchant ship, he canao, know
whether she has eonsraband goods on board
or not. Shall he be required to take The
word OF asea captain sufficient evidence /. (
This would hardly be .ufieien. security. IT
then you console to belliseren,, any mara.
Ii ne rights whatever, the RICH. of search
must b. the 6rst.