Virginia Argus. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1796-1816, 1811-08-08

not ire the first shot, but that after his shin
had been fired into, he returned the COM
pliment. He added also, that the President
was the first to pour broadside into the Lit
tie Belt, Which was returned by her before
she could, consistently with the rules of the
nrl'ish navy condescend to strike her colours,
even to force of such great superiority"
If this be the fact, and iftte American Co
vernment declare that the Capt. of the Pre-
sident did not act Contrary to his orders. there
can be but one line of conduct we can adopt
consistently co with what We owe to cur nation
FOX, PORTER.
JUDGMENT RESUMED.
Sir URliam Scott.
AS the Claimants have failed to produce
any evidence Of the revocation of the French
DEGREES and have nothing to offer as the
foundation of demand for further time, I
must conform to what / declared on a for
MGR day, and proceed to make the decree
efectual. l should certainly have been ex
tremely glad to have received any authentic
information tending to shew that The DEGREES
OF France to which these Orders in Council
are retaliatoiy, had been revoked; and it
was upon suggestion offered on the part of
the Claimants, that dispatches had been very
recently received from Paris by the Ameri-
can minister In this country, by which the
tact might be ascertained, that the Court ON
the former day deferred its final Judgment
L would have been unwilling to proceed to
the condemnation of these vessels, without
giving the proprietors the Opportunity of
showing 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our Orders in Council are founded, had been
revoked.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 1t is my duty to delay no longer the udr.
ment which is called for on the part of the
captors.
FROM every thing that must have preced-
ed, and from every thing that must have fol-
lowed the revocation of the French DEGREES
II sucn revocation had taken place, think
am justified III pronouncing that no such e.
vent has ever occurred. The only document
referred 70 on behalf of the Claimants is the
letter OF the person styling himself Due de
Cadore That letter is nothing more than a
conditional revocation: it contains an alter
native proposed-either that G. Britain shall
not only revoke her Orders in Council bnt
likewise renounce her principles of blockade.
principles founded upon the ancient and es-
tabllshed Law of Nations or that America
shall cause her neutral rights to BE respect
cd III other words, that she shall Join France
10 compulsive confederation AGAINST this
should renounce her principles of blockade
to adopt the new tangled principles of the
french Government, which are absolute no.
velties IN the Law of Nations and hope il
IS equally impossible that America shouId
lend herself to an hostile attempt to compel
TINS country to rcnounce those principles on
which 1t has acted in perfect conformity to
ancient practice and the known Laws of Ma
tons, upon the mere demand of the person
holding the government of France. The ca
sus foedrus therefore, if it NAV be SO called.
does not exist, the conditions on which alone
france holds out prospect of retracting the
l'ecreeS, neither are nor can be fulfilled
Looking at the question therefore, priori. II
cannot be presumed that the revocation has
passed. On the other hand what must have
followed if such had been the fact, WIN
that the American minister in this country
must have been in possession of most decisive
evidence upon the subject, for | Cannot bnt
suppose that the first step Of the American
Minister at Paris would have been to annr;ze
| the American minister at this Court of so
nomentous a circumstance with a view To
protect the American ships and carcoes
which had been brought in under the British
Orders in Council If no such information
has been received by him, there never was a
case IN which the rule DE non apparentibus
- mn NNiotShltOuo CdueU est ratio can more
satisfactorily apply. For it is quite impossi-
bic that such revocation can have taken
place without being attended with clear de-
monstration Of evidence that such was the
fact. ''i0
am, therefore, upon every view Of tbe
case, OF opinion that the French DEGREES are
at this moment unrevokel. Bnt if nv anv
possibility 1t can have heppencd that an ac-
tual revocation has taken place ara;ne, the
manifest import Of the only public French
Declaration referred to and without HAVING
been yet communicated to the American nni2
MISTER IN tins Country, who was so much con-
cerned to know it, for the benefit of the per-
sons for whose protection it must have been
Principally meant the parties will have the
advantage OF the fact, ifthev can sbew mon
an appeal that those DEGREES havebeen rcvok-
Cd at a time and in a manner tIat could ;rst-
" DC applied TO the determination of these
causes revoked at period which would
reach the dates of this. Capture, and m anv
manner unincumbcrcd with stipnlationS
which 1t was well known this country couId
never accept, and to which there was evct,
reason to presume that the Justice Of Amcri-
ca could never permit her to acccde. mon
the refusal OF Great Britain On snch a statc
OF evidence the claimants will carry mn viii
them TO the superior Court the principie tha, j
might ehtitle them 70 protection according IN
the view which this Court has taken of The
Il.