Virginia Argus. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1796-1816, 1813-09-16

! W tidt Kingdom.
ihe HiSn7fohzins class of merchants, who
really govern Great Britain, will eontinu,
to be pleased aud gratificd with this war
so long as the neutral trade is permitted h,
| the United States, because that trade is al
most exclusively owned by British merchants
Two ships sailed for the United States from
London, during my stay there, ore of whic
had RUSSIAN papers and u Russian master
the other purPorted to be owned by a Span
lard at Cadia, had Spanish papers aud a
Spaniard on board whose duty IL was tn en-
ter and clear her in the United States. Ye,
the avowed owners OF these two vessels re.
SHE ~ l. ndon, and are neither ofthem Span.
lard or Russian. But these two instance
are nothing: The British yoscrDr,sn; moan
to moRopollze the whole of our trade, ,hroi
the neutral flag: and it may safely be asser-
ted, that so long as they are allowed to car
ry on Themselves, so much of the coamerce
of the United States as is for their benefit, x
to stop all the remainder So long at lea st
the mercantile body OF Great Britain be anx
lous To nave war continued with the United
States.
1t may not be uninteresting to add that
the writer was informed in London, by a We
~ respectable gentleman VINO has Just left
the bai'lc, that even in that quarter, the
British merchants were sowing un Ameri
eau aud other vessels, putting them under
Swedish colors, and fitting them out for the
United States with iron, &c.
1t happened that the newspaper from
America, containing the Pre- sident's message
OF the gath OF February with the account of
the passage through the House of Repre,en
tative OF the bill against the use of licences
IN American vessels reached England when
was there. The effect was wonderful
he merchants and the government were
IN measure, struck with alarm and with
utter surprise, at these energetic measures.
his sentiment however, subsidized into Coz.
tempt, as soon as they learnt that the Senate
had rejected those two bills and the Board
OF Trade, which mad been hI1ic Sc uck for a
fortnight, With the fear OF losing our Grade
we're now puzalimg and worrying themselves
from day to day, to devise ways and means
o prevent any part OF 1t from being carried
on by American citizens. This famous limb
OF the pilvy council were many days resol
wing, re resolving and deIiberatlng before
hey could hit upon mode of issuing iicen
ces which they deemed sufficiently restric
i've. IL may appear strange that this great
government is thus actuated and thas en-
ployed, but It is nevertheless true.
The British government views ours az
government without energy and utterlv
unable to carry any energetic msasI,re mt
'eiiect 1t believes that eur government dares
MT TAX the people to cain'y on the war; and
darcs not prevent the British from carry.es
away our bread to supply Their army and
fhe" COLONIES; or even to regulate and carr,
ON the whole commerce or our country
with these opinions and feelings, it may rea
dliy be supposed, that the British cabinet do
not fsel in much haste 10 make peace with
US 4; and they do not mean Ito use .he ele
CANT language of The Courier) Ito give MS
peace, until they have chastised the iDsolent
Americans, Tor daring TO make war upon
them"
stopping the neutral trade entirely and
especially so far as it regards bread stuffs
lumber, flax seed and sailed provisio ions,
could not fail 10 have most beneficial ei-
feet. We should soon be inundated with
brltish licences. to export our surplus pro,
ducts on our own terms. 1t does not belong
t. an individual to say whether it is proper
or not to use british Licences bu. they Ger
tainly will be used by almost every merchant
when he Can make profit thereby, unless
they are prohibited by law and il is unoues
tionably better, in ev ny point of view, that
we should export our produce on our ozvn
terms even under license, than to crafty the
British with the liberty of exporting It on
theirs
The writer viii take the freedom to state
iur'her, that he knows that Congress-, by
passing the law against the use of British Ii
ccnces IN American vessels, and al tire same
hHe leaving the neutral trade unmo!ested,
have placed our Commerce OH the precise
footing which is in exact conformity with
he views and policy OF The British govern
ment. And he cannot refrain from declar-
ing It as his lost solemn conviction, that il
is the worst footing for us, and the best for
our enemy, that could be devised.
At the same time, it cannot be calculated
how infinitely better it wcnld be fir our
country IT we could entirely prohibit the ex.
porsation OF prOVi5ions and lumber. What
ever we export of these articles, goes d
rectly tofeed the enemy, and enables him to
COMBAT us with renewed strength and vigor.
II may safely be Pronounced tha. the with
holding cur bread and other provisions from
the e"emy--the preventing him from
carrying on our commerce through the
neutral flag----and the shutting out ms
manufactures----are the three most pow
erlul weapons with which we can fight
this powerful antagonist and il cannot be
doubted but the embargo which was lately
proposed, had It been carried in;o a law.
would IN this Instance at least have borne
Infinitely harder upon the enemy than upon
ourselves. can now scarcely suppress my
Indignation at seeing the arge quantities OF
De. Trolling off ttc wharges IN this p ace in,o
oianisn ships, and which knew was going
direct to the armies of the enemy.
he past spring, the British hig;h church
Statesmen made rather lofty calculations
| with regard to the issue OF the Contest with
America They considered Napoleon com
| pletely ruined and that all the rthern
| kingdoms OF Europe would now be in thclr
alliance and open to their commerce and
| that consequently they should have L c elst