summer of 1826, Mr. Gallatin arrived in London, having been appointed to succeed Mr. King, but unfortunately his negotiation was ineffectual. The act of Congress of 1823, remaining in force, Great Britain, by an order in council of July 1826, closed the ports of the West Indies against our vessels; and in that condition they remain to this day. This fact was known in this country in December, but a proclamation in conformity with the provisions of the act of March 1823, reviving the provisions of the acts of April 1813 and of May 1820 and closing the ports of the United States to British vessels from the colonies, was not issued till March 1827, so that the whole trade fell into the hands of the British between these periods. The subject, however, had been referred to the consideration of Congress.

It may be termed an unfortunate measure in the history of this business, that Mr. Gallatin was authorized to accept the terms, Mr. Rush had, by the directions of his government, rejected two years before. In 1826 the condition was abandoned, that in 1824 was presented as a sine qua non, a condition, which this country has never succeeded in extorting from Great Britain, though, till the embassy of Mr. Gallatin it has been adhered to with great steadiness.*

*The terms Mr. Gallatin was authorized to accept are explained and illustrated in the following remarks :—“We say to Great Britain, your ships shall be permitted to import the produce of your colonies into the United States, paying the same duties of impost and tonnage, as are exacted on vessels of the United States and their cargoes of like produce, with the liberty to British vessels to depart with merchandise to any other part of the world, provided you allow us like privileges in your colonial ports. If this offer be accepted, an American vessel may go to the West Indies, thence to any part of the world, except the dominions of Great Britain, and then return to the United States, having earned the freight of three voyages and the profit of two exchanges. We shall obtain, therefore, in addition to what was allowed by the act of 1822, the right to carry colonial produce from the British West Indies to any foreign country, and, in return, we allow a British vessel arriving from Liverpool at New-York, or any other port here, to take thence a cargo, such as our vessels may take, to the West Indies, paying no other duties or charges, than our own

This government having delayed for two years to take any notice of the offer of the British plenipotentiaries in 1824, having sent a minister to England without instructions

vessels pay under like circumstances. From the West Indies, such British vessel may either return to Great Britain, or carry colonial produce to Europe, or come to any port in the United States, land her cargo of colonial produce, and thence carry cotton, naval stores or any other article to Great Britain. This gives to her apparently a very enlarged privilege.

"I am aware, that many respectable merchants entertain a doubt, whether our navigation will be able to compete with the British on such terms. My own opinion is, that the experiment may be properly and safely tried. Though it is true, that a British vessel may take a cargo from Liverpool to New-York, and thence to the West Indies and to Europe, or back to the United States, making, what is called the triple voyage, it is, also, true, that freights from Liverpool to NewYork have become unusually low, and are likely so to continue, by which that voyage is rendered unimportant. The exports from the - United States are bulky, so that the value of one return cargo probably will be equal to four, and, in some cases, to six outward cargoes. There is, therefore, and will, doubtless, continue to be always a great competition for freight from England to the United States, and hence the price of freights will be greatly depressed. The packets which are constantly passing between New-York and Liverpool, rely for their profits in some degree upon passengers, and are, therefore, willing to take freight at a low price. British merchant vessels, which have been employed in the West India trade, will certainly be unable to compete with these packets in carrying articles of British manufacture of small bulk and great value. British vessels in England will have a fairer prospect of a profit, by taking a cargo to the West Indies than to the United States,-the freight to the latter being scarcely sufficient to pay the expense of manuing and supplying the vessel during the voyage, while to the West Indies the freights are subject to no competition and of course must be adequate. British West India vessels, too, arriving in the United States to carry our produce hence to the West Indies, owing to their size, will not be able to enter the small ports, where the article, suited to the West India market, may be conveniently and advantageously obtained, and can only find entrance into a few of the larger ports. At those ports they will be compelled to purchase such articles, as may be offered, and charged with a freight from the place of production, as well as to the profit 42

VOL. II.

on the subject, and suffered a year to pass by, without meeting, by any legislative enactment, the arrangement, proposed in the act of Parliament of July 1825, it cannot be matter of surprise, if, under these circumstances, the foreign government should suppose neither of its propositions was acceptable, and, having given the necessary time for their consideration, should withdraw them from public notice." This was the state of things, when Mr. Gallatin arrived in England, accompanied by an intimation, that the trade would, thereafter, cease to be matter of negotiation.

It now remains to take notice of the doctrines, asserted by Mr. Canning in a letter (September 11, 1826) to Mr. Gallatin, as being those, that will, hereafter, regulate the movements of the British government on this subject.

"It is the unquestionable right, and it has, till within these few years, been the invariable practice of countries, having colonies, to reserve to themselves the trade with those colonies, and to relax that reservation only under special circumstances and on particular occasions. When a relaxation of that nature has been dictated, and limited by the necessities of the mother country, or of the colonies, the foreign countries, taking advantage of it, may fairly aver, that they owed nothing to the state, which had granted such relaxation. They may, even, have felt themselves at liberty

of the merchant. Articles, the produce of North Carolina and other states, concerned in this trade, will not be carried to New-York or other large ports to be exported in British ships, but will find their way in our vessels directly to the West Indies. This trade must, from its peculiar character, continue to be carried on by American navigation. The British West India ships, also, are not constructed in such a manner as to permit them to carry horses and other live stock, which form important exports to the British islands. It must be remembered as a reason for adopting this proposition, that although we have offered like terms by our navigation act of 1824, to all nations, and that we have already practised upon this liberal system in our commercial intercourse with some, we have not found it to be injurious to our navigation. We may, therefore, safely extend the same to Great Britain, and trust for success to the economy, with which our vessels are built and navigated, the celerity of their movements, and the known activity of our merchants and seamen."

to decline to accept of a partial admission into the ports of the colonies, thus evidently opened from considerations of local or temporary convenience, unless they were allowed a general liberty of trade with those colonies, independently of such considerations."

"It cannot, however, be supposed, it is not affirmed by Mr. Gallatin, that by granting the privilege thus in effect, exclusively to the United States, in the first instance Great Britain precluded herself from extending it to other nations, whenever the course of events should create a favourable occasion for doing so. Events, which intervened between 1822 and 1825, created such an осса

sion.

"As little can it be supposed, that, because Great Britain submitted at a moment of necessity to terms, which, though not unjust, were inconvenient to her, she bound herself to continue to submit to them, when that necessity should have passed away.

"Scarcity may justify the demand for a high price, and monopoly may give the power of exacting it; but there is surely no understood compact between the buyer and the seller, that the former shall not endeavour to make himself independent of the latter, by opening the market to general competition."

"Our right, either to open the ports of our colonies or to keep them closed, as might suit our own convenience, our right to grant the indulgence of a trade with those colonies to foreign powers wholly or partially, unconditionally or conditionally, as we might think proper, and if conditionally, on what conditions we pleased, was clear. We were not bound by any engagement to continue a monopoly of such indulgence to one foreign power against another. We had for three years felt the inconvenience of such monopoly. We naturally sought, therefore, in our new measure to avoid the recurrence of the like inconvenience by making our indulgence, general to all nations; and, in order to keep the regulation of that indulgence in our own hands, we granted it by spontaneous legislation, and not by positive treaty."

"But the British government further owes to the spirit of frankness, which it wishes to cultivate in all its relations with the United States to declare, that, after having been compelled to apply to any country the interdict, prescribed by the act of 1825, the British government cannot hold itself bound to remove the interdict, as a

matter of course, whenever it may happen to suit the convenience of the foreign government to reconsider the measures, by which the application of that interdict was occasioned.

"It is not made matter of complaint by the British government, that the United States have suffered the time to pass by, at which it might have been an object of greater importance to this country to induce the United States to come into their proposals.

"The United States exercised upon this point a free judgment, and they can on their part have no reason to complain, that Great Britain, after allowing ample time for maturing that judgment, is contented to abide the result of their decision.

"If we direct our attention to the ground, which has been assumed by Mr. Canning, there can arise on this side of the Atlantic no difference of opinion. It is indefensible in its principle and injurious in its application. Whatever may be the right of Great Britain to consider the colonies as an integral part of her empire, and to restrict the supplying of their wants to the resources of the mother country, transported in their own vessels, this right of monopoly ceases, whenever other powers, either from necessity or interest, are admitted to its participation. It then becomes a subject of mutual interest. The supply of the one is as useful as the demand of the other, and, if the trade is opened to all, it should be opened on terms, liberal and just to both. But where would be the justice of abandoning her system of exclusive supply, and opening her ports to the admission of foreign productions, now become necessary to their prosperity or existence, but denying to the countries, from whence they are supplied, not only the privilege of transporting them, but even the privilege of an equal participation in their transportation. This has neither been the principle, nor the practice of other nations, having colonies. It is admitted to be the principle of the colony system to prohibit, as much as may be convenient, all trade between the colonies and foreign countries; but when policy requires the trade to be opened, to allow the vessels of foreign countries, the reciprocal right of being employed in it. The trade, when opened, ceases to be a fit subject for the application of those rules, by which portions of the same empire are governed. Other powers then become parties to the terms, by which it is to be carried on.It stands precisely on the footing of any other trade, and differs in no essential