Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1811-08-07

sWer her? A refusal TO answer couiu d.
ford no reasonable cause OfcOmplaint to
vessel that was neutral, for what had she
to apprehend? Very different was our
case. for we were at war, and the charac-
ter of belligerent gave us a right to give
false answers or no answer, in short, to
have recourse to stimulation and dissimu-
lation to mislead the enemy. How was
the Little Belt to know whether 1t was
not the hail of an enemy? And it bound
to answer the hail, would she be not e.
qually bound to answer second anc thru
question and so on thus leading her to
expose her condition? Captain Bingham,
therefore, acted strictly in conformity with
his duty as British officer when, instead
of answering the hail, he hailed in his
turn-and here the duty of a neutral,
which the President was, obliged him to
satisfy our ship that she could have no
hostile intentions, and that she was the
vessel of a friendly power. But what did
she do and private letters, we beg our
readers to observe, give very different
version from the American papers, and
one much more probable. They all agree
in stating that the first gun and the first
broadside was fired by the American
After we had hailed the President, she
fired a shot at the Little Belt--the latter
returned it, the President then poured
broadside, which, of course, was returned;
so state all the private letters. This
important fact" says one OF them, g was
promulgated in New ork by the very Off
GER who was sent OH board by Commo-
dore Rodgers ON the morning after the
action had ceased, who did not hesitate to
assert that capt. B. had at that interview
declared on his honor that he did not fire
the first shot, but that after his ship had
been fired into, he returned the compli-
ment. He added, also, that the President
was the first to pour broadside into the
Little Belt. which was returned by her be-
fore she could, consistently with the rules
of the British navy, condescend to strike
her cOlors, even to a force OF such great
superiority"
If this be the fact, and if the American
government declare that the Capt. OF the
President did not act contrary to his or
ders. there can be but one line OF conduct
we can adopt consistently with what we
owe to our national character.
FOX, PORTER.
JUDGMENT RESUMED.
Sir William Scott,
As the claimants have failed to produce
any evidence of the revocation OF the
French DEGREES, and have nothing to Of
fer as the foundation ola demand for fur
Their time, must conform to what de-
clared on former day, and proceed to
make the decree effectual. should GER
tainly have been extremely glad to have
received any authentic information tend
ING to shew that the DEGREES ofFrance, to
which these orders in council are retalia-
tory. had been revoked; and it was upon
a suggestion offered on the part of the
claimant. that dispatches had been very
recently received from Paris by the Anne
rican minister in this country, by which
the fact might be ascertained, that the
Court on the former day deferred its final
iudgment.-I would have been unwilling
to proceed to the condemnation of these
vessels. without giving the proprietors the
opportunity of shelving that the French
DEGREES, on which our orders in council
are founded, had been revoked. But they
admit that they have no such evidence to
produce; the property of the ships and
cargoes is daily deteriorating, and it is my
duty to delay no longer the judgment
which is called for Oh the part of the cap
tors.
From every thing that must have pre-
ceded, and from every thing that must
have followed the revocation of the French
DEGREES, if such revocation had taken
place, think am justified in prOnounc-
ing that no such event has ever occurred.
The only document referred to on behalf
of the claimants is the letter of the per-
son styling himself Due de Galore. That
letter is nothing more than conditional
revocation: it contains an alternative pro-
posed-either that Great Britain shall not
only revoke her orders in council, but
likewise renounee her principles Of block