The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1811-11-22

the world, to become the o,iious instrument OF
AN unjust monopoly, instead OF measure OF honors-
be war.
These principles are too moderate and Just to fur
nish aay motive to the British government for hesl-
Eating To revoke its orders in council and those aalo
sous orders ct blockade which the United States ex-
pect to be recalled. IL hardly be doubted thatl
Ereat-ritain will Ultimately acccde them in their
fullest eAtent but ii that be sai,gune caculaton
(as trust is not) it is still that
disinciinauon at this moment to acknowledge them,
can suggest no rational nducemcnt ior declining To
repeal at once, what every priLciple disowns, ANA
what must be repeated ut last
With regard TO the rules of blockade Which the
French government expects YOU to- bandon, do not
take upon to decide whether they are sucI AS your
iortstiip suppcses them to be not. Your view OF
them may be correct; bSt it may also be erroneous
and 1t IS wholly itnnaterii to the between the
United States aud Great Britain whether il be the
one or the other.
AS to such British Biockades as the United States
desire YOU to lcinanisli, YOU will not am SURF, az
eSe, that 1t any tor sdhcins to them that
Franco expects you TO rcinqush Others. Ii our de-
naiids are suited to the OF own rights
and OF your Obligations they respect those rig hts
you cannot think OF founding rejection OF them up
on any imputed exorbitancc IN theories OF the French
government, for which not responsible, and
with which we have M, concern. III, when you have
done justice to the United States your enemy should
call upon you to 20 farther, what shall prevent YOU
from refusing Yourftee agency will in no respect
have been impaired. Your case will be better in
truth and in the opinion OF mankind, and YOU will
be, therefore, stronger in maintaining it provided
that IN doing SO, you resort only to leytmate means
and do not once more forget the ris:,ts of others
While YOU seek to vintlicate your own. Whether
France will be satisfied with hat you may ,o is not
to be known by anticipation, aud ought not to be a
subject OF enquiry. So vague speculation has no.
thing to DO with your duties TO nations peace and
II 1t had, would annihilate them. 1t cannot serve
your INTERESTS for it tends to lessen the number OF
your friends without adding to your security AGAINST
your enemies You are required, therefore, to do
rssht and to leave the consequences to the future
when by doing right you have every thing to gain and
nothing to lose =,
AS to the Orders in Council, which professed m
be reluctant departure from all ordinary rules and
to be justified only as SYSTEM Of retaliation for pre-
existing measure OF France their foundation [such as
1t was) is gone the moment that measure is no longer
IN operation. But the Berlin decree is repealed
and even the Milan decree, the successor of Your or
deis In counci Is repealed aso Why is it. then that
your orders have out-ved those edicts, and that
they are still to Cypress and harrass before Your
lordship answers this question explicitly enough but
not satisfactorily You do not aege that the French
DEGREES are not repealed; but you imagine that the
repeal Is not to remain in force, unless the British
government SHALL in addition to the revocation of its
orders in council, abandon its ystem of blockade
am not conscious of having stated, as your Lortlsbp
seems to think, that this is SO, and believe in fact
that is otherwise Even if it were admitted howe
yer, the orders in council ought nevertheless to b.
revoked. Can the safety and honor of the British
nation" demand that these orders shall continue to
the undisputed rights of neutral commerce. after the
pretext which was at first invented for them is gone
But you are menaced with revival of the French
system, and consequently may again be furnished
with the same pretext. Be it so; yet still, as the
system and the pretext present at an end, SO
Of course shonld be your, orders.
According TO your mode of reasoning, the situation
OF neutral trade is hopeless indeed. Whether the
Berlin decree exists not it equally to Justify YOUR
orders council You issued them before it was any
thing but shadow and, by doing So gave to it all the
substance it could ever claim. 1t is at this momena
nothing 1t is revoked and has passed away accord
ing to your own admission. You choose, however TO
look for its re-appearance, and you make your own
expectation equivalent to the decree ITSELF Compell-
ed to concede that there is anti-neutraI French
edct in operation upon the ocean, you think it sui-
cient to say that there will he such an edict YOU
know not when, and in the time you do all you
can to verify your prediction, by giving to your
enemy all the provocston in your power to resume
the DEGREES which he has abandoned.
For my part, my Lord, know not what it is that
the British government requires, with view to what
1T calls its safety and its honor, inducenent to
rescind its orders in council 1t does not, presume
imagine that such sy stem will be suffered to ripen
into law 1t must intend to relnquish it sooner or
LATER as one OF those violent experiments, for which
time can do nothing, and to which submission will be
hoped In vain Yet, even after the protested founda-
ton OF this mschieyous system is taken away, ano-
ther and another is industrousy procured 70 it 50
that no man tell Mt what time or under what cir
cumstances. it is likely to have end When rea-
ties cannot be found, possibilities supply their place, &
that, which originally said to be retaliation for
actual injury, becomes at last G such solecism can
be endured imagined) retaliation for abbrehended
injuries, which the future may or may not produce,
but which it is certain have no existence noSp.
do not mean to grant, for do not think that the
edict OF Berlin did at any time lend even color of
equity to the British orders in council with reference
to the United States but it might reasonably have
been expected that they, who have so much relied
upon 1T as justification, would have suffered it and
them to sink together How this is forbidden by your
safety your honor remains to be explained and
not willing to believe that either the one or the o.
theris inconsistent with the observance of substantial
justice, and with the prosperity and rights of peaceful
states.
Although your Lordship has slightly remarked up
on certain recent acts of the French government. &
has spoken in general terms of " the system of yio
ence and injustice pursued by Franco as reuu-
ring precautions of defence on the part of q
Britain, do not perceive that YOU deduce any con-
sequence from these observations, 10 favor of n per
severance in the orders in council. am not myself
aware of any edicts of France which, now that the
Berlin and Milan DEGREES are repealed, affect the
rights of neutral commerce on the seas Ard Won
will Yourselves admit that il any OF the acts of the
French government, resting territorial sovereign
", have injured shall hereafter iniure the United
States it is for them, and for them only to seek re-
dress. Ia like manner it is for Great Britain to de-
terinne what precautions of defence those measures
OF France, which yoa dcnorniBate unjust and violent
may render it expedicnt for her IN adopt. The Uni
ted States have only insist that sacrifice Of their
rights shall not be among the number of those pre-
cautions.
In replying to that passage in your letter which adj
ly necessary to mention The proclamation of the Pre-
sdgut al the United States IF ,c