Sitting of 3 February 1813

PETITIONS RESPECTING THE EAST INDIA COMPANY'S CHARTER—FROM THE MERCHANTS,&C. OF MANCHESTER—AND THE MAGISTRATES,&C. OF GLASGOW—AND THE MERCHANTS OF BRISTOL.
A Petition of the merchants, and manufacturers of Manchester and Salford, was presented and read; setting forth,
"That many of the petitioners have been long and extensively engaged in commercial transactions, embracing chiefly the sale and exportation of the cotton manufactures of this kingdom, on which the numerous population of the town and neighbourhood of Manchester mainly depend for their support; and that the petitioners have entered fully into the various considerations which arise from the efforts of the East India Company to obtain a renewal of their expiring charter, and it appears to the petitioners capable of the most satisfactory proof, that the exclusive privileges hitherto enjoyed by the company, under the authority in question, have been found highly injurious to the general interests of the country; and that, after the very ample discussions the subject has received, and the detrimental consequences which have resulted from the system of monopoly so universally complained of, the petitioners here abstain from troubling the House with the detailed grounds they are prepared to prove, and on which they urge the national injustice of prolonging these evils; and that the serious pressure occa-

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sioned by the unexampled measures of the enemy to effect the destruction of British commerce, and the natural results of the wars in which the nation is now unavoidably engaged, are circumstances which call loudly for every attention to new and legitimate sources of a more extended and permanent trade; and that, to establish an open commercial intercourse generally with the countries from which the existing charter excludes the British merchants, would not only afford the most effectual relief in the present situation of public affairs, but would, as the petitioners confidently submit, most essentially contribute to the lasting benefit and prosperity of the kingdom at large, for it cannot be doubted that the daily improvement and marked superiority of our machinery, the unrivalled skill and ingenuity of our artificers, and the great variety and perfection of our manufactures, would constantly ensure them the advantage of the markets alluded to; and that the petitioners therefore earnestly trust that the House will be pleased to adopt such measures as may, after the termination of the present charter, fully secure to all his Majesty's subjects the right of a free and unlimited trade with those countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope from whence they are now prohibited; and that with this view the petitioners humbly: crave leave to be heard, by their counsel, against the expediency of renewing the Company's exclusive powers, and that, if necessary, they may be also allowed to give evidence On the subject at the bar of the House."
A Petition of the magistrates and common council of Glasgow, in council assembled, was also presented and read; setting forth,
"That, observing, from its recent resolutions, that the House is to take into its early consideration what arrangement ought in future to be adopted for the regulation of the commerce of these kingdoms with the countries situated to the east of the Cape of Good Hope, and to the west of Cape Horn, the petitioners deem it their duty again to appeal on this most important subject to the justice, the wisdom, and the liberality of parliament; and that the petitioners have learned, with surprise, that it has been maintained the House is precluded, by the vested rights and privileges of the East India Company, from adopting such an arrange-
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ment as may be ascertained to be, upon the whole, the most just and expedient; and that the petitioners humbly conceive that, in point of justice, all his Majesty's subjects are equally entitled, as the united company of merchants trading to the East Indies, to hold commercial inters course with all the quarters of the habitable globe: they apprehend that freedom of commerce is one of the birthrights of Britons, which nothing but state necessity, or strong and obvious national expediency, ought ever to induce the legislature to abridge or controul; and they submit that the present question is in reality not whether parliament ought to take from a trading corporation its vested rights and privileges, for these, being of an artificial and temporary nature, necessarily cease with the charter to which they owed their origin, but whether parliament can, in the discharge of its great and paramount duty, longer lend its sanction to an exclusive grant, which experience has proved to be highly inexpedient in general, and not even advantageous to the possessors, and by which the interests of the whole are obviously sacrificed to those of a part of the nation; and the petitioners cannot entertain a doubt that, by laying open to the capital, the skill, and the enterprize of British merchants, those vast regions from which they have been so long excluded, the manufactures of this country will be promoted, its commerce and navigation extended, and the financial and naval resources of the government thereby augmented; and the opening of such a field is certainly at the present conjuncture peculiarly necessary, when the overgrown power of the tyrannical ruler of France excludes this nation from so large a portion of the European continent, and when the natural intercourse with the North American States is for a time interrupted; and that the petitioners are convinced that, under proper regulations, the import as well as the export trade with the countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope may be extended indiscriminately to the ports Of the united kingdom, without any risk of the payment of the revenue derived by government from that source being evaded; and, if the latter object can be attained, the extension of the privilege to all his Majesty's subjects who are in a condition to avail themselves of it is certainly most consistent with the liberal policy of the British legislature; and that the petitioners are also firmly persuaded

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that, under proper regulations, the merchants of Great Britain and Ireland may be admitted to a free and unfettered commercial intercourse with the provinces of India, without exciting any unfavourable disposition in the natives towards this country, and without any danger whatever to the stability of the provincial government; and, while they cannot but consider as extremely hard the existing enactments, by which foreign nations have been admitted to the benefit of this commercial intercourse, and British subjects excluded, the petitioners humbly suggest the propriety of making such arrangements as may in future secure to the British merchant trading to the British possessions in Asia that protection; and reception to which he is justly entitled; and that finally, the petitioners own they cannot perceive that the expenditure incurred by the company in the extension and in the government of the British possessions in the Indian peninsula affords any sufficient ground, in justice or expediency, for continuing to that corporation the monopoly of the trade to China; they have reason to believe that the trade with China, although laid open to all his Majesty's subjects, may be placed on such a footing, and under such regulations, as to prevent any risk of offence by individuals to the government or people of that vast empire; and they are decidedly of opinion, that admission to the Chinese trade is indispensably necessary to enable the British merchant to carry on the trade with the British possessions in Asia with advantage, and with success; and praying the House, in its wisdom, to refuse its sanction to any renewal of the exclusive commercial privileges of the E. I. Company, and to restore to his Majesty's subjects in general their right to carry on, from as many of the ports of the united kingdom as the security of the revenue will permit, a free trade with the British possessions in Asia, and with the other countries situated to the east of the Cape of Good Hope, particularly the empire of China; and farther praying to be heard by counsel in support of this Petition."
A Petition of several merchants, traders, and other inhabitants of the city of Bristol, was also presented and read; setting forth,
"That the petitioners, in contemplation of an intended application to the legisla-
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ture by the East India Company, for a renewal of their exclusive privilege of trade, and confident in the justice and wisdom of the House, the natural and powerful guardians of the people's right, deem it their indispensable duty thus early to represent to the House, that the full and free-right to trade to and with all countries and people in amity with their sovereign, and more particularly with those countries and settlements acquired and maintained by the efforts and valour of the forces of his Majesty, is the undoubted birthright and inheritance of the people of this empire; and that the exclusive privilege of the E. I. Company is a manifest infringement of that right, from which many and great evils have resulted; and that the petitioners further humbly submit to the House, as a sound and incontrovertible principle, that, in this enlightened age, commerce can neither be benefited nor extended by monopoly; and that all ideas of direct participation by the public treasury in behalf of the nation, in the profits of trade, as a compensation or purchase for such monopolised commerce, must and ever will be vain and illusory; and the petitioners humbly adduce the disappointed expectations of the nation and the legislature, in regard to the E. I. Company in complete illustration of this principle; and that the petitioners refer to the information before the House, to show that the trade carried on by the E. I. Company has decreased at the very time when, by British exertions, its field has been extended and itself protected from enemies and hostile rivalry,; and that foreigners, by the advantages of free and unfettered exertions, have been at the same time successfully competing with the E. I. Company not only in the trade of the Company's own settlements, but also in the trade to China to a vast amount, whilst such trades have been long and obstinately denied to the subjects of the United Kingdom; and that the petitioners further humbly submit to the House, that the prospect of pecuniary participation held out to the country in 1793, not only has not been realised, but has been converted into repeated claims by the E. I. Company on the public purse and credit; and that further and still greater pecuniary assistance will be required to avert embarrassments in which the E. I. Company must otherwise soon be involved; and that the petitioners rely, with the utmost confidence that the House will disregard

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any arguments that may be adduced in favour of the E. I. Company's exclusive privilege, which would, if admitted, apply with equal force against the freedom of any and of every branch of British commerce, the whole of which might thus be paralized by monopoly, as this great arm of our strength has been, to the ruin of our naval greatness, and the consequent downfall of our independence; and that the petitioners beg leave humbly to submit to the House, that of all the effects of monopoly none is so injurious as its confinement of commerce to a particular port, and that the principal out-ports of the United Kingdom have an undoubted right to equal privilege of trade with the port of London, bearing, as they do cheerfully, their full and common proportion of the burthens of the state, and the privations which the unexampled state of Europe has brought upon the trading and manufacturing classes of the community; and that trade, when confined to a single port of a great empire, must of necessity, from being cramped and narrowed, languish and decline; and that great and expensive improvements have, of late years, been made in most of the principal out-ports, with a view to the extension of commerce, and to the accommodation of a larger class of ships; and that the known loyalty, integrity, and opulence of the merchants resident in the out-ports, afford ample security for their care of the vital interests of their country, in respect of its national revenue, which the petitioners, with deference assert, is as diligently and faithfully collected, and as cheerfully paid, in those out-ports as in the port of London; and that the petitioners, however, far from having a wish to deprive the E. I. Company of any right or claim they may have on the justice or liberality of parliament for indemnification, are most anxious that all such claims may be fairly examined and fully and liberally remunerated; but further humbly submit to the House, that the means of such remuneration should arise from a fair and equal impost on the trade in question, and should not be attempted by restrictions which can only serve to shackle and injure commerce, and to harass and perplex the merchant, without any solid benefit to the E. I. Company; and praying, that the House, taking the premises under their consideration, will refuse to comply with any application that may be made by the E. I. Company for a renewal of their exclusive pri-
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vilege, and will leave the trade to India and China fully and freely open to the enterprize, skill, and capital of the merchants of the United Kingdom, subject only to such salutary laws for its regulation and protection as the legislature, in its wisdom and paternal care, may deem necessary; and that the petitioners may be allowed to be heard, by themselves their counsel and agents, at the bar of the House, in support of the objects of this Petition."
Ordered to lie upon the table.

PETITION FROM RIPON AGAINST THE CLAIMS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS.
A Petition of the mayor, burgesses, and commonalty of the borough of Ripon, in the county of York, in common council assembled, was presented and read; setting forth,
"That the petitioners, being fully sensible of the many blessings and advantages which all ranks and degrees of his Majesty's subjects enjoy under the present wise and happy constitution of these kingdoms, as by law established, which allows to all sects and persuasions of men full and free toleration in the exercise of their religious duties; and that the petitioners cannot, without a considerable degree of regret and alarm, behold the attempts which are now making with so much intemperate zeal in a sister kingdom by some of his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects to pull down those ancient barriers of our constitution, the Test Acts, which upwards of 120 years experience have proved and fully convinced the petitioners are the best and surest guards and security of both civil and religious liberty, and from which epoch they may, with great propriety, date our national freedom, prosperity, and happiness; and the petitioners, therefore, humbly hope and rely on the wisdom of parliament that those great pillars of our constitution will be permitted to stand firm and remain fixed on their present basis, without alteration, to latest posterity, and that the present claims of the Roman Catholics may not be granted."
Ordered to lie upon the table.

PETITION FROM THE PRISONERS OF WAR IN FRANCE.
Mr. Whitbreadsaid, he held in his hand a Petition from the owners masters and mates in the merchant service, now prisoners of war in Prance, which though dated on the 15th of December, he had received; but the day be-

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fore yesterday. He should not now enter into the discussion, whether the continued captivity of those unfortunate men was owing to the government of this country or to the enemy, but he hoped that some means would be taken to alleviate their distresses.
Lord Castlereaghsaid, the hon. gentleman could not be more anxious than him-self to give effect to the prayer of the Petition.
The Petition was then brought up and read, setting forth,
"That the undersigned owners masters and mates of British merchant vessels, prisoners of war in France, humbly beg leave, in behalf of themselves and fellow prisoners of the same class, to represent to the House the unhappy situation to which they and their families are reduced; and that the greater part of the petitioners have been deprived of their liberty for five six and seven years, some have been even eight years in captivity, during all which time they have received no more from the French government than twenty nine francs and fifteen centimes per month each, and that they have occasionally partaken of the charitable donations remitted from home for the relief of the prisoners in general, but in consequence of the great number of seamen soldiers and others to whom these distributions have been necessarily extended, the total sum received by the petitioners in different payments from the first general distribution in July 1808, and including the last payment on the 25th of November 1811, amounts only to 90 francs, except in cases of illness or particular distress, unless they include those masters captured in vessels under 80 tons register, who receive from this charitable fund a regular allowance of nine francs per month, as they are treated by the French government only as seamen; and that several of the petitioners were prisoners last war in France, and according to an ancient custom received a regular gratuity, said to be queen Anne's bounty, but even this bounty has been withheld from them, except one payment in 1804: under these painful circumstances they have been obliged to draw their chief subsistence from home, from the small resources which they had acquired by their former industry, and which they had hoped to have reserved for the support of their declining years, and for establishing their children in such branches of commerce as might be useful to them-
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selves and country; and that the situation of the greater part of the petitioners, whose resources are now exhausted, is become truly deplorable, and many have been reduced to the necessity of entering into menial service for their present subsistence, not having any longer sufficient means of otherwise providing themselves with lodging clothing firing and other necessaries of life; and that their case is also more peculiarly discouraging, as they are not only without the consolation enjoyed by the prisoners of the royal navy of receiving an additional present support in consideration of their former services, but are obliged, from their diminished resources, to send occasional assistance to their apprentices captured with them; and that having dedicated their lives to a service of such acknowledged importance, both as a source of the public revenues and as a nursery for the royal navy, they humbly hope that the House will be graciously pleased to take their present distress into consideration, and afford them such relief for themselves and families as in their wisdom and goodness the House may deem expedient, until the return of peace or an exchange of prisoners, so ardently and so anxiously desired, shall release them from their long and unexampled detention, and enable them again to provide for their own support."
Ordered to lie upon the table.
Mr. Whitbreadgave notice, that he should, on the 4th of March, bring forward a distinct proposition on the subject of peace.

LOCAL TOKEN BILL.
The House resolved into a Committee on the Local Token Bill.
The Chancellor of the Exchequersaid, that before the adjournment he had given notice of a Bill for the purpose of allowing the Local Tokens already issued to remain in circulation for some time longer, and at the same time to prevent any addition being made to the quantity now in circulation. Many objections had been made to the suppression of this species of currency; but, even if no chance existed of the place of it being adequately supplied by any other kind, it would be wrong to continue a currency so entirely out of the controul of government, so much debased, and confined, from the limited credit of the issuers, to certain districts. As, however, temporary inconvenience might arise from the act in ques-

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tion, the measure which he should now propose might be desirable. The House was acquainted with the improvement in the state of the exchange, from which there was a prospect of an influx of bullion, by which the means of remedying the evils arising from the species of currency under consideration, might be increased. The time which he intended to propose for the operation of his Bill was six months, but the proper occasion for discussing the period would be in the committee on the Bill. He should move that the chairman do report to the House their opinion, that leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend the Local Token Act.
Mr. Whitbreadsaid, that six months might possibly be objected to, as at the end of that time the House would not be sitting. The proper time for discussing it, however, would be in the committee on the Bill.
The Chancellor of the Exchequersaid, that he was unwilling to hold out any probability of a long term being granted, as he was convinced of the mischievous-ness of the currency in question.
The motion was then put and carried.

DECLARATION OF WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Lord Castlereagh presented, by command of his royal highness the Prince Regent, the Papers relative to the discussions with America on the subject of the French Decrees and the Orders in Council subsequent to the 20th of May 1812: together with the following

DECLARATION OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE REGENT RELATIVE TO THE CAUSES AND ORIGIN OF THE WAR WITH AMERICA.
The earnest endeavours of the Prince Regent to preserve the relations of peace and amity with the United Stales of America having unfortunately failed, his Royal Highness, acting in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, deems it proper publicly to declare the causes, and origin of the war, in which the government of the United States has compelled him to engage.
No desire of conquest, or other ordinary motive of aggression has been, or can be with any colour of reason, in this case imputed to Great Britain: that her commercial interests were on the side of peace, if war could have been avoided, without the sacrifice of her maritime rights, or without
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an injurious submission to France, is a truth which the American government will not deny.
His Royal Highness does not however mean to rest on the favourable presumption, to which he is entitled. He is prepared by an exposition of the circumstances which have led to the present war, to show that Great Britain has throughout acted towards the United States of America, with a spirit of amity, forbearance, and conciliation; and to demonstrate the inadmissible nature of those pretensions, which have at length unhappily involved the two countries in war.
It is well known to the world, that it has been the invariable object of the ruler of France, to destroy the power and independence of the British empire, as the chief obstacle to the accomplishment of his ambitious designs.
He first contemplated the possibility of assembling such a naval force in the channel as, combined with a numerous flotilla, should enable him to disembark in England an army sufficient, in his conception, to subjugate this country; and through the conquest of Great Britain he hoped to realize his project of universal empire.
By the adoption of an enlarged and provident system of internal defence, and by the valour of his Majesty's fleets and armies, this design was entirely frustrated; and the naval force of France, after the most signal defeats, was compelled to retire from the ocean.
An attempt was then made to effectuate the same purpose by other means: a system was brought forward, by which the ruler of France hoped to annihilate the commerce of Great Britain, to shake her public credit, and to destroy her revenue; to render useless her maritime superiority, and so to avail himself of his continental ascendancy, as to constitute himself in a great measure the arbiter of the ocean, notwithstanding the destruction of his fleets.
With this view, by the Decree of Berlin, followed by that of Milan, he declared the British territories to be in a state of blockade; and that all commerce, or even correspondence with Great Britain was prohibited. He decreed that every vessel and cargo, which had entered, or was found proceeding to a British port, or which, under any circumstances, had been visited by a British ship of war, should be lawful prize: he declared all British

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goods and produce, wherever found, and however acquired, whether coming from the mother country or from her colonies, subject to confiscation: he further declared to be denationalized, the flag of all neutral ships that should he found offending against these his Decrees: and he gave to this project of universal tyranny, the name of the Continental System.
For these attempts to ruin the commerce of Great Britain, by means subversive of the clearest rights of neutral nations, France endeavoured in vain to rest her justification upon the previous conduct of his Majesty's government.
Under circumstances of unparalleled provocation, his Majesty had abstained from any measure, which the ordinary rules of the law of nations did not fully warrant. Never was the maritime superiority of a belligerent over his enemy, more complete and decided. Never was the opposite belligerent so formidably dangerous in his power, and in his policy to the liberties of all other nations. France had already trampled so openly and systematically on the most sacred rights of neutral powers, as might well have justified the placing her out of the pale of civilized nations. Yet in this extreme case, Great Britain had so used her naval ascendancy, that her enemy could find no just cause of complaint: and in order to give to these lawless Decrees the appearance of retaliation, the ruler of France was obliged to advance principles of maritime law unsanctioned by any other authority, than his own arbitrary will.
The pretexts for these Decrees were, first, that Great Britain had exercised the rights of war against private persons, their ships and goods; as if the only object of legitimate hostility on the ocean were the public property of a state, or as if the edicts, and the court of France itself had not at all times enforced this right with peculiar rigour; secondly, that the British orders of blockade, instead of being confined to fortified towns, had, as France asserted, been unlawfully extended to commercial towns and ports, and to the mouths of rivers; and thirdly, that they had been applied to places, and to coasts, which neither were, nor could be actually blockaded. The last of these charges is not founded on fact, whilst the others, even by the admission of the American government, are utterly groundless in point of law.
Against these Decrees, his Majesty pro-
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tested and appealed; he called upon the United States to assert their own rights, and to vindicate their independence, thus menaced and attacked; and as France had declared, that she would confiscate every vessel, which should touch in Great Britain, or be visited by British ships of war, his Majesty, having previously issued the Order of January 1807, as an act of mitigated retaliation, was at length compelled, by the persevering violence of the enemy, and the continued acquiescence of neutral powers, to revisit, upon France, in a more effectual manner, the measure of her own injustice; by declaring, in an Order in Council, bearing date the 11th of November 1807, that no neutral vessel should proceed to France or to any of the countries from which, in obedience to the dictates of France, British commerce was excluded, without first touching at a port in Great Britain, or her dependencies. At the same time his Majesty intimated his readiness to repeal the Orders in Council, whenever France should rescind her Decrees, and return to the accustomed principles of maritime warfare; and at a subsequent period, as a proof of his Majesty's sincere desire to accommodate, as far as possible, his defensive measures to the convenience of neutral powers, the operation of the Orders in Council was, by an Order issued in April 1809, limited to a blockade of France, and of the countries subjected to her immediate dominion.
Systems of violence, oppression, and tyranny, can never be suppressed, or even checked, if the power against which such injustice is exercised, be debarred from the right of full and adequate retaliation: or, if the measures of the retaliating power, are to be considered as matters of just offence to neutral nations, whilst the measures of original aggression and violence are to be tolerated with indifference, submission, or complacency.
The government of the United States did not fail to remonstrate against the Orders in Council of Great Britain. Although they knew, that these Orders would be revoked, if the Decrees of France which had occasioned them, were repealed, they resolved at the same moment to resist the conduct of both belligerents, instead of requiring France in the first instance to rescind her Decrees. Applying most unjustly the same measure of resentment to the aggressor, and to the party aggrieved, they adopted measures of com-

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mercial resistance against both—a system of resistance, which, however varied in the successive Acts of Embargo, Non-Intercourse, or Non-Importation, was evidently unequal in its operation, and principally levelled against the superior commerce, and maritime power of Great Britain.
The same partiality towards France was observable, in their negociations, as in their measures of alleged resistance.
Application was made to both belligerents for a revocation of their respective edicts; but the terms in which they were made, were widely different.
Of France was required a revocation only of the Berlin and Milan Decrees, although many other edicts, grossly violating the neutral commerce of the United States, had been promulgated by that power. No security was demanded, that the Berlin and Milan Decrees, even if revoked, should not under some other form be re-established: and a direct engagement was offered, that upon such revocation, the American government would take part in the war against Great Britain, if Great Britain did not immediately rescind her Orders.—Whereas no corresponding engagement was offered to Great Britain, of whom it was required, not only that the Orders in Council should be repealed, but that no others of a similar nature should be issued, and that the blockade of May 1806, should be also abandoned. This blockade established and enforced according to accustomed practice, had not been objected to by the United States at the time it was issued. Its provisions were on the contrary represented by the American minister resident in London at the time, to have been so framed, as to afford in his judgment, a proof of the friendly disposition of the British cabinet towards the United Slates.
Great Britain was thus called upon to abandon one of her most important maritime rights; by acknowledging the order of blockade in question, to be one of the edicts, which violated the commerce of the United States, although it had never been so considered in the previous negociations;—and although the President of the United States had recently consented to abrogate the Non-Intercourse Act, on the sole condition of the Orders in Council being revoked; thereby distinctly admitting these Orders to be the only edicts, which fell within the contemplation of the law, under which he acted.
A proposition so hostile to Great Britain could not but be proportionally encouraging to the pretensions of the enemy. As by thus alleging that the blockade of May 1806, was illegal, the American government virtually justified, so far as depended on them, the French Decrees.
After this proposition had been made, the French minister for foreign affairs, if not in concert with that government, at least in conformity with its views, in a dispatch, dated the 5th of August 1810, and addressed to the American minister resident at Paris, stated that the Berlin and Milan Decrees were revoked, and that their operation would cease from the 1st day of November following, provided his Majesty would revoke his Orders in Council, and renounce the new principles of blockade; or that the United States would cause their rights to be respected; meaning thereby, that they would resist the retaliatory measures of Great Britain.
Although the repeal of the French Decrees thus announced was evidently contingent, either on concessions to be made by Great Britain, (concessions to which it was obvious Great Britain could not submit,) or on measures to be adopted by the United States of America; the American President at once considered the repeal as absolute. Under that pretence the Non-Importation Act was strictly enforced against Great Britain, whilst the ships of war, and merchant ships of the enemy were received into the harbours of America.—The American government, assuming the repeal of the French Decrees to be absolute, and effectual, most unjustly required Great Britain, in conformity to her declarations, to revoke her Orders in Council. The British government denied that the repeal, which was announced in the letter of the French minister for foreign affairs, was such as ought to satisfy Great Britain; and in order to ascertain the true character of the measure adopted by France, the government of the United States was called upon to produce the instrument, by which the alleged repeal of the French Decrees had been effected. If these Decrees were really revoked, such an instrument must exist, and no satisfactory reason could be given for withholding it.
At length, on the 21st of May 1812, and not before, the American minister in London did produce a copy, or at least what purported to be a copy of such an instrument.
It professed to bear date the 28th of April 1811, long subsequent to the dispatch of the French minister of foreign affairs of the 5th of August 1810, or even the day named therein, viz. the 1st November following, when the operation of the French Decrees was to cease. This instrument expressly declared that these French Decrees were repealed in consequence of the American legislature having, by their Act of the 1st of March 1811, provided, that British ships and merchandize should be excluded from the ports and harbours of the United States.
By this instrument, the only document produced by America as a repeal of the French Decrees, it appears beyond a possibility of doubt or cavil, that the alleged repeal of the French Decrees was conditional, as Great Britain had asserted; and not absolute or final, as had beep maintained by America; that they were not repealed at the time they were stated to be repealed by the American government; that they were not repealed in conformity with a proposition, simultaneously made to both belligerents, but in consequence of a previous act on the part of the American government, in favour of one belligerent, to the prejudice of the other: that the American government having adopted measures restrictive upon the commerce of both belligerents, in consequence of edicts issued by both, rescinded these measures, as they affected that power, which was the aggressor, whilst they put them in full operation against the party aggrieved; although the edicts of both powers continued in force; and lastly, that they excluded the ships of war, belonging to one belligerent, whilst they admitted into their ports and harbours the ships of war belonging to the other, in violation of one of the plainest, and most essential duties of a neutral nation.
Although the instrument thus produced was by no means that general and unqualified revocation of the Berlin and Milan Decrees, which Great Britain had continually demanded, and had a full right to claim; and although this instrument, under all the circumstances of its appearance at that moment, for the first time, was open to the strongest suspicions of its authenticity; yet as the minister of the United States produced it, as purporting to be a copy of the instrument of revocation, the government of Great Britain, desirous of reverting, if possible, to the ancient and accustomed principles of ma
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retime war, determined upon., revoking conditionally the Orders in Councill. Accordingly in the month of June last, his royal highness the Prince Regent was pleased to declare in council, in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, that the Orders in Council should be revoked, as far as respected the ships and property of the United States, from the 1st of August following. This revocation was to continue in force provided the government of the United States should, within a time to be limited, repeal their, restrictive laws against British commerce. His Majesty's minister in America was expressly ordered to declare to the government of the United States, that "this measure had been adopted by the prince Regent in the earnest wish and hope, either that the government of France, by further relaxation of its system, might render perseverance on the part of Great Britain in retaliatory measures unnecessary, or if this hope should prove delusive, that his Majesty's government might be enabled, in the absence of all irritating and restrictive regulations on either side, to enter with the government of the United States into amicable explanations, for the purpose of ascertaining whether, if the necessity of retaliatory measures should unfortunately continue to operate, the particular measures to be acted upon by Great Britain, could be rendered more acceptable to the American government, than those hitherto pursued."
In order to provide for the contingency of a declaration of war on the part of the United States, previous to the arrival in. America of the said Order of Revocation, instructions were sent to his Majesty's minister plenipotentiary accredited to the United States (the execution of which instructions, in consequence of the discontinuance of Mr. Foster's functions, were at a subsequent period entrusted to admiral sir John Borlase Warren), directing him to propose a cessation of hostilities, should they have commenced; and further to offer a simultaneous repeal of the Orders in Council on the one side, and of the restrictive laws on British ships and commerce on the other.
They were also respectively empowered to acquaint the American government, in reply to any inquiries with respect to the blockade of May 1806, whilst the British government must continue to maintain its legality, "that in point of, fact this particular blockade had been discontinued

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for a length of time, having been merged in the general retaliatory blockade of the enemy's ports under the Orders in Council, and that his Majesty's government had no intention of recurring to this, or to any other of the blockades of the enemy's ports, founded upon the ordinary and accustomed principles of maritime law, which were in force previous to the Orders in Council, without a new notice to neutral powers in the usual form."
The American government, before they received intimation of the course adopted by the British government, had in fact proceeded to the extreme measure of declaring war, and issuing "Letters of Marque," notwithstanding they were previously in possession of the Report of the French minister for foreign affairs, of the 12th of March, 1812, promulgating anew the Berlin and Milan Decrees, as fundamental laws of the French empire, under the false and extravagant pretext, that the monstrous principles therein contained were to be found in the treaty of Utrecht, and were therefore binding upon all states. From the penalties of this code no nation was to be exempt, which did not accept it, not only as the rule of its own conduct, but as a law, the observance of which, it was also required to enforce upon Great Britain.
In a Manifesto, accompanying their declaration of hostilities, in addition to the former complaints against the Orders in Council, a long list of grievances was brought forward; some trivial in themselves, others which had been mutually adjusted, but none of them such, as were ever before alleged by the American government to be grounds for war.
As if to throw additional obstacles in the way of peace, the American Congress at the same time passed a law, prohibiting all intercourse with Great Britain, of such a tenor, as deprived the executive government, according to the President's own construction of that Act, of all power of restoring the relations of friendly intercourse between the two states, so far at least as concerned their commercial intercourse, until Congress should re-assemble.
The President of the United States has, it is true, since proposed to Great Britain an armistice; not, however, on the admission, that the cause of war hitherto relied on was removed; but on condition, that Great Britain, as a preliminary step, should do away a cause of war, now brought forward as such for the first time;
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namely, that she should abandon the exercise of her undoubted right of search, to take from American merchant vessels British seamen, the natural-born subjects of his Majesty; and this concession was required upon a mere assurance that laws would be enacted by the legislature of the United State3, to prevent such seamen from entering into their service; but independent of the objection to an exclusive reliance on a foreign state, for the conservation of so vital an interest, no explanation was, or could be afforded by the agent who was charged with this overture, either as to the main principles, upon which such laws were to be founded, or as to the provisions which it was proposed they should contain.
This proposition having been objected to, a second proposal was made, again offering an armistice, provided the British government would secretly stipulate to renounce the exercise of this right in a treaty of peace. An immediate and formal abandonment of its exercise, as preliminary to a cessation of hostilities, was not demanded; but his royal highness the Prince Regent was required, in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, secretly to abandon, what the former overture had proposed to him publicly to concede.
This most onfffesive proposition was also rejected, being accompanied, as the former bad been, by other demands of the most exceptionable nature, and especially of indemnity for all American vessels detained and condemned under the Orders in Council, or under what were termed illegal blockades—a compliance with which demands, exclusive of all other objections, would have amounted to an absolute surrender of the rights, on which those Orders and blockades were founded.
Had the American government been sincere in representing the Orders in Council, as the only subject of difference between Great Britain and the United States, calculated to lead to hostilities; it might have been expected, so soon as the revocation of those Orders had been officially made known to them, that they would have spontaneously recalled their "Letters of Marque," and manifested a disposition immediately to restore the relations of peace and amity between the two powers.
But the conduct of the government of the United States by no means corresponded with such reasonable expectations.
The Order in Council of the 23d of June

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being officially communicated in America, the government of the United States saw nothing in the repeal of the Orders in Council, which should of itself restore peace, unless Great Britain were prepared, in the first instance, substantially to relinquish the right of impressing her own seamen, when found on board American merchant ships.
The proposal of an armistice, and of a simultaneous repeal of the restrictive measures on both sides, subsequently made by the commanding officer of his Majesty's naval forces on the American coast, were received in the same hostile spirit by the government of the United Stales. The suspension of the practice of impressment was insisted upon, in the correspondence which passed on that occasion, as a necessary preliminary to a cessation of hostilities: negociation, it was stated, might take place without any suspension of the exercise of this right, and also without any armistice being concluded; but Great Britain was required previously to agree, without any knowledge of the adequacy of the system which could be substituted, to negotiate upon the basis of accepting the legislative regulations of a foreign state, as the sole equivalent for the exercise of a right which she has felt to be essential to the support of her maritime power.
If America, by demanding this preliminary concession, intends to deny the validity of that right, in that denial Great Britain cannot acquiesce; nor will she give countenance to such a pretension, by acceding to its suspension, much less to its abandonment, as a basis on which to treat. If the American government has devised, or conceives it can devise, regulations, which may safely be accepted by Great Britain, as a substitute for the exercise of the right in question, it is for them to bring forward such a plan for consideration. The British government has never attempted to exclude this question from amongst those, on which the two states might have to negociate: it has, on the contrary, uniformly professed its readiness to receive and discuss any proposition on this subject, coming from the American government: it has never asserted any exclusive right, as to the impressment of British seamen from American vessels, which it was not prepared to acknowledge, as appertaining equally to the government of the United Slates, with respect to American seamen when found on
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board British merchant ships:—but it cannot, by acceding to such a basis in the first instance, either assume, or admit that to be practicable, which, when attempted on former occasions, has always been found to be attended with great difficulties; such difficulties, as the British Commissioners in 1806 expressly declared, after an attentive consideration of the suggestions brought forward by the Commissioners on the part of America, they were unable to surmount.
Whilst this proposition, transmitted through the British admiral, was pending in America, another communication on the subject of an armistice was unofficially made to the British government in this country. The agent, from whom this proposition was received, acknowledged that he did not consider, that he had any authority himself, to sign an agreement on the part of his government. It was obvious that any stipulations entered into, in consequence of this overture, would have been binding on the British government, whilst the government of the United Stales would have been free to refuse or accept them, according to the circumstances of the moment: this proposition was therefore necessarily declined.
After this exposition of the circumstances which preceded, and which have followed the declaration of war by the United States, his royal highness the Prince Regent, acting in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, feels himself called upon to declare the leading principles, by which the conduct of Great Britain has been regulated in the transactions connected with these discussions.
His Royal Highness can never acknowledge any blockade whatsoever to be illegal, which has been duly notified, and is supported by an adequate force, merely upon the ground of its extent, or because the ports or coasts blockaded, are not at the same time invested by land.
His Royal Highness can never admit, that neutral trade with Great Britain can be constituted a public crime, the commission of which can expose, the ships of any power whatever to be denationalized. His Royal Highness can never admit that Great Britain can be debarred of its right of just and necessary retaliation, through the fear of eventually affecting the interest of a neutral.
His Royal Highness can never admit, that in the exercise of the undoubted and hitherto undisputed right of searching

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neutral merchant vessels in time of war, the impressment of British seamen, when found therein, can be deemed any violation of a neutral flag. Neither can he admit, that the taking such seamen from on board such vessels, can be considered by any neutral state as a hostile measure, or a justifiable cause of war.
There is no right more clearly established, than the right which a sovereign has to the allegiance of his subjects, more especially in time of war. Their allegiance is no optional duty, which they can decline, and resume at pleasure. It is a call which they are bound to obey: it began with their birth, and can only terminate with their existence.
If a similarity of language and manners may make the exercise of this right more liable to partial mistakes, and occasional abuse, when practised towards vessels of the United States, the same circumstances make it also a right, with the exercise of which, in regard to such vessels, it is more difficult to dispense.
But, if to the practice of the United States, to harbour British seamen, be added their assumed right, to transfer the allegiance of British subjects, and thus to cancel the jurisdiction of their legitimate sovereign, by acts of naturalization and certificates of citizenship, which they pretend to be as valid out of their own territory, as within it, it is obvious that to abandon this ancient right of Great Britain, and to admit these novel pretensions of the United States, would be to expose to danger the very foundation of our maritime strength.
Without entering minutely into the other topics, which have been brought forward by the government of the United States, it may be proper to remark, that whatever the declaration of the United States may have asserted, Great Britain never did demand, that they should force British manufactures into France; and she formally declared her willingness entirely to forego, or modify, in concert with the United States, the system, by which a commercial intercourse with the enemy had been allowed under the protection of licences: provided the United States would act towards her, and towards France, with real impartiality.
The government of America, if the difference between states are not interminable, has as little right to notice the affair of the Chesapeake. The aggression, hi this instance, on the part of a
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British officer, was acknowledged, his conduct was disapproved, and a reparation was regularly tendered by Mr. Foster on the part of his Majesty, and accepted by the government of the United Stares.
It is not less unwarranted in its allusion to the mission of Mr. Henry; a mission undertaken without the authority, or even knowledge of his Majesty's government, and which Mr. Foster was authorised formally and officially to disavow.
The charge of exciting the Indians to offensive measures against the United States, is equally void of foundation. Before the war began, a policy the most opposite had been uniformly pursued, and proof of this was tendered by Mr. Foster to the American government.
Such are the causes of war which have been put forward by the government of the United States. But the real origin of the present contest will be found in that spirit, which has long unhappily actuated the councils of the United States: their marked partiality in palliating and assisting the aggressive tyranny of France; their systematic endeavours to inflame their people against the defensive measures of Great Britain; their ungenerous conduct towards Spain, the intimate ally of Great Britain; and their unworthy desertion of the cause of other neutral nations. It is through the prevalence of such councils, that America has been associated in policy with France, and committed in war against Great Britain.
And under what conduct on the part of France has the government of the United States thus lent itself to the enemy? The contemptuous violation of the commercial treaty of the year 1800, between France and the United States; the treacherous seizure of all American vessels and cargoes in every harbour subject to the controul of the French arms; the tyrannical principles of the Berlin and Milan Decrees, and the confiscations under them; the subsequent condemnations under the Rambouillet Decree, antedated or concealed to render it the more effectual: the French commercial regulations which render the traffic of the United States with France almost illusory; the burning of their merchant ships at sea, long after the alleged repeal of the French Decrees—all these acts of violence on the part of France produce from the government of the United States, only such complaints as end in acquiescence and submission, or are accompanied by suggestions for

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enabling France to give the semblance of a legal form to her usurpations, by converting them into municipal regulations.
This disposition of the government of the United States—this complete subserviency to the ruler of France—this hostile temper towards Great Britain—are evident in almost every page of the official correspondence of the American with the French government.
Against this course of conduct, the real cause of the present war, the Prince Regent solemnly protests. Whilst contending against France, in defence not only of the liberties of Great Britain, but of the world, his Royal Highness was entitled to look for a far different result. From their common origin—from their common interest—from their professed principles of freedom and independence, the United Stales were the last power in which Great Britain could have expected to find a willing instrument, and abettor of French tyranny.
Disappointed in this his just expectation, the Prince Regent will still pursue the policy, which the British government has so long, and invariably maintained, in repelling injustice, and in supporting the general rights of nations; and, under the favour of Providence, relying on the justice of his cause, and the tried loyalty and firmness of the British nation, his Royal Highness confidently looks forward to a successful issue to the contest, in which he has thus been compelled most reluctantly to engage.
Westminster, Jan. 9, 1813.

PETITIONS AGAINST THE CLAIMS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS.
The Bishop of Chichester presented a Petition from the archdeacon, clergy, and others, of Chichester, against the Catholic Claims.—He also presented a Petition from the bishop, dean, and chapter of Ely, against the Catholic Claims.—Earl Nelson presented a Petition from the archdeacons of Norwich and Norfolk, against the Catholic Claims.
The Bishop of Norwich observed, that the Petition was contrary to his sentiments, and he could not but give his public testimony against the propriety of the clergy interfering in this question—a question which nearly concerned the welfare of several thousands of his Majesty's loyal and faithful subjects, and which

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ought to be left to the unbiassed decision of the legislature. He could not but lament that any part of the clergy should lead the way in contributing to raise the detestable cry of No Popery, which on a former occasion had produced so much mischief, and he deeply regretted that those illiberal and uncharitable sentiments which petitions of this nature upheld, and which had been banished from the rest of the world, should leave their last footsteps in the sanctuaries of our religion and our temples of literature.
The Petition having been read,
The Duke of Norfolk observed, that one expression in it, that the Catholics enjoyed the same privileges as the Protestant Dissenters, was not founded in fact, Protestant Dissenters being allowed to sit in parliament, whilst a part of the oaths tendered was levelled expressly at Catholics to prevent their sitting there.
The Bishop of Salisbury presented a Petition from the dean and chapter of Salisbury against the Catholic Claims.—He also presented a Petition to the same effect from the archdeacon and clergy of Berks, and the dean, archdeacon, and clergy of Salisbury, and two other jurisdictions within the diocese of Salisbury.—On one of these Petitions,
The Duke of Norfolk observed, that it stated that the Catholics still believed in the infallibility of the Pope; and on another, that it charged the Catholics with still holding the tenet, that sovereigns might be excommunicated by the Pope. On the language of Petitions which were now lying for signature in every alehouse in Westminster, it would not be worth while to remark; but when a Petition came from a learned body, it was natural to expect that it would be correctly expressed. It was, therefore, with surprise, he found the Catholics still charged, in Petitions from learned persons, with holding the tenets of the infallibility of the Pope, and the excommunication of sovereigns; although, by the strongest oaths that could be put to man, they had absolutely denied that they entertained any such tenets. These Petitions, therefore, asserted that which was not the fact, and it was of importance that the misrepresentation should be contradicted.
Lord Hollandthought the noble duke entitled to thanks for thus vindicating the Catholics from misrepresentation, it being notorious that all the Catholics of Ireland had, by the strongest oaths that could be
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devised, and by the most solemn appeal to God, denied that they entertained any such tenets.
The Bishop of Salisbury also presented a Petition from the dean and chapter, the archdeacon and clergy of Exeter, against the Catholic Claims.—Viscount Sidmouth presented a Petition to the same effect from the mayor, aldermen and assistants of the borough of Leeds Ordered to lie upon the table.

EAST INDIA COMPANY'S CHARTER.
Viscount Melville presented Petitions from the chamber of commerce of Edinburgh, the convention of the royal burghs in Scotland, and the corporation of Stirling, assembled in guild, against the continuance of the monopoly of the East India Company.