The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1812-06-30


against the United States, have, from time
to time, been presented to his Britannia ma
jesty's government. That these cases have
been few, is to be ascribed to the few cap
lures, in consequence of this repeal, made
by French Cruizcrs and should no ether
such case occur, it will be owing to the eff :.
caCy of this repeal, and to the exact obser-
vance of it, even by the most wanton and ir-
regular of those cruizers.
From the LIST of November, 1910, to the
29th of January, of the present year, as APP.
pears by note which i had the honor to ad-
dress to the predecessor of your lortiship, on
the 8th of February last, the Berlin and Mi
Ian DEGREES had not been applied to Ameri-
can property, nor have heard that such
application has since been made.
But against the authentic act of the French
government of the 5th of August, 1910, and
the subsequent conduct of that government,
mutually explaining each other, and confirm
ing the construction adopted by the United
States, report said to be communicated by
the French minister of foreign affairs to the
conservative senate. Is opposed. Without
pretending to doubt the gcnuineness Of that
report, although it has reached this country
only IN newspaper, yet it is to be lament
ed that as much form and evidence of All
thenticity have not been required, in an act
considered as furnishing cause for the con-
tinuance of the orders in council, as an act
which by the very terms of those orders
challenged their revocation. The act of the
5th Of August, 1910, emanating from the
sovereign of France, officially communicated
to the British government, and satisfacto-
rily expounded and explained by the prac-
teal comments of more than eighteen
months, is denied to afford convincing evil
dence OK the repeal of the French DEGREES,
while full proof of their continuance is infer
red from a report, which, from its very ma
ture, must contain the mere opinions and
spcculations of a subject, which is destitute
oi ali authority until acted upon by the body
to which 1t was presented, which has found
its way hither in no more authentic shane
than the. columns of the Moniteur, and for
the proper understanding of which not mo-
ment has been allowed. But even were the
value thus assigned to the report just, it is
still difficult to discover what inference can
be fairly deduced from it, Incompatible
with the previous declarations and conduct
OF the French government exempting the U.
States from the operation of its decrees.-
he very exception in that report, with
regard TO, nations which do not suffer
their flag to be denationdlised,s was untloubt-
edly made with a reference to the United
States. and with view to reconcile the ge-
neral tenor OF chat report with the good faith
with which it became France to observe the
conventional repeal of those decrses in their
favor. However novel may be the terms
or whatever may be their pre-
else meaning, they ought to be interpreted
to accord with the engagements of the
French government, and with justice and
good faith.
Your lordship win, I doubt not, the more
readily acknowledge the propriety of consi-
dering the report in this light, by a refer
ence to similar reports made to the same
conservative senate, on the 18th of Deem
Der, 1910, by the Duke OF Galore (the pre-
decessor of the present French minister of
exterior relations) and by the count de ST.
knoxville. In these reports, they say to the
Emperor (Which sufficiently proves that such
reports are not TO be considered as dictated
by him y {. Sire, as long as England shall
persist in her orders in coutich, SO long your
majesty will persist in his decrees," and
g the DEGREES OF Berlin and Milan are an
answer to the orders in council The Bril- |
fish cabinet has, thus to speak, dictated them !
to France. Europe receives them for her
code, and this code shall become the pala-
dunn of the liberty of the seas" Surely |
this language is as strong as that of the re-
port of the 10th ofMarch and still more alb |
solute for there is nc qualification in it |
in favor of any nation I; yet this language |
has. both by an explanation from the duke of |
form, conduct of the French government
since, been reconciled with the repeal of
these dccress, so far as they concerned the
u. S.,
Had the French DEGREES originally afford
ed an adequate foundation for the British
orders, and been continued after these re-
ports, in their full force and extent, surely
during period in which above hundred |
American vessels and their cargoes have
fallen prey to these orders, some one sol;- |
tary instance of capture and confiscation
must have happened under those degrees
That no such instance has happened, incon-
proves, either that those DEGREES
are OF Themselves harmless, or that they
have been repealed and in either case,
they can afford no rightful plea or pretext |
TO u. Britain. for these measures of preten-
ned retaliation, whose sole effect is to lay |
waste the neutral commerce of America.
With The remnant of those deccees, which |
is Still IN force, and which consists of NUM- |
cipai regulations, confined in their operation |
within the proper and Hndeniable jurisdic
tion OF the states where they arc executed,
the u. States have no concern. Nor do |
they acknowledge themselves to be under
any political obligation, either to examine |
into the ends proposed to be attained by this |
surviving portion of the continental system,
or to oppose their Accomplishment. What
to other nations by this system, cannot be |
imputed to the United States, nor are they
to be made responsible, while they religious
ly observe the obligations of their neutrality,
tor the mode in which belligercnt nations