The 1st of these Articles extended to The United States the provisions of the Free Port Acts of Parliament of 27th June, 1805, and 30th June, 1808, authorizing a certain Trade, in certain enumerated articles, with certain enumerated Ports of the British West India Islands. to the Colonial inhabitants of Foreign European Possessions, in Vessels of one deck. The island of Bermuda was included in the provisions of this Act. The 2d Article made a special and additional provision for the Trade between The United States and the island of Bermuda, allowing a longer list of articles, both of import and export, and without limitation as to the size or form of the Vessels to be employed in the Trade. The 3d Article proposed to allow access to Vessels of The United States to Turk's Island, for salt, and to import tobacco and cottonwool, produce of The United States. The 4th proposed to regulate the intercourse between The United States and the British Territories adjoining them, on the Continent of North America. After a full and deliberate consideration, these Articles were considered by the Government of The United States, as not acceptable, and the Act of Congress of 18th April, 1818,* concerning Navigation, was passed. The Negotiation of the Convention of 20th October, 1818, immediately afterwards ensued, with regard to which you are referred— To the letter from this Department to you, dated 21st May, 1818, [Message 13th February, 1823, p. 59.] To the Letter from this Department to Mr. Gallatin, 22d May 1818, [p. 62.] Your Letter to this Department, 25th July, 1818, [68, 69, 70.] Instructions from this Department to Messrs. Gallatin and Rush, 28th July, 1818, [71, 72.] Letter from Messrs. Gallatin and Rush to this Department, 20th October, 1818, [p. 107, 108, 109, 110, 111.] Protocol of 3d Conference, Article C, and another proposed by the American Plenipotentiaries, [115, 118.] Protocol of 5th Conference, Article D, proposed by the British Plenipotentiaries, [133.] Protocol of 8th Conference, Article F, proposed by the British Plenipotentiaries, and taken by the American Plenipotentiaries, for reference to their Government, [150.] And, subsequently to the conclusion of the Convention, To Letter from this Department to you, 1st Decem. 1818, [p. 89.] Do. do. do. 7th May, 1819, and two Articles proposed, [91, 97.] Your Letter to this Department, 14th June, 1819, [97] Do. do. do. 17th September, 1819, [99.] *Sec Vol. 1822, 1823, page 776. Letter from this Department to you, 27th May, 1820, transmitting the Act of Congress of 15th May, 1820,* [101.] By the Act of Congress of 15th April, 1818, concerning Navigation, the Ports of The United States were, from the 30th of September of that Year, closed against British Vessels, coming from any British Colony, (by the ordinary Laws of Navigation and Trade,) closed against Vessels of The United States; and British Vessels, sailing with cargoes from Ports of The United States, were laid under bonds to land their cargoes in some Port or Place other than in a Colony closed against Vessels of The United States. It was a non-intercourse in British Vessels, with Ports closed by British Laws against the Vessels of The United States. By the Supplementary Act of 15th May, 1820, the Ports of The United States were, from the 30th of September of that Year, closed against British Vessels coming or arriving by sea, from any British Colonial Ports in the West Indies, or American British Vessels from Ports of The United States, were laid under bonds to land their cargoes in some place other than any British American Colony; and, articles of British West Indian, or North American produce, were allowed to be imported into The United States only direct from the Province, Colony, Plantation, Island, Possession, or Place, of which they were wholly the growth, produce, or manufacture; it was a non-intercourse in British Vessels with all the British American Colonies; and a prohibition of all articles, the produce of those Colonies, except the produce of each Colony imported directly from itself. In the mean time, an Act of Parliament of 8th May, 1818, [58 Geo. 3, ch. 19,] and an Order in Council of 27th May, 1818, founded thereon, opened the Ports of Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and of St. John, in New Brunswick, to the Vessels of all Foreign Nations in amity with Great Britain, for the importation of certain enumerated articles, and for exportation to the Country to which the Foreign Vessel should belong. This Act was limited in its duration to 3 Years, and 6 weeks after the commencement of the then next Session of Parliament: but, the Order in Council, specifying the Ports to which it should be extended, was revocable at pleasure. This Act of Parliament, and Order in Council, were construed, in The United States, not to affect, in any manner, the provisions of the Act of Congress of 15th April, 1818. The Ports of Halifax and St. John remained closed against Vessels of The United States, by the ordinary Laws of Navigation and Trade, although opened for a limited time by an Order in Council, revocable at pleasure. Their real condition, therefore, in October, 1818, was that of being open to the Vessels of The United States, while the Ports of The United States were closed against British Vessels coming from them. See Vol. 1822, 1823, page 777. It was on the 6th of October, 1818, that the British Plenipotentiaries, at the negotiation of the Convention of the 20th of that month, proposed the Article D, relating to the intercourse between The United States and the Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, which Article they, on the 19th, declared was, together with the one offered in March, 1817, relating to Bermuda, a sine quâ non of any article to be signed by them, relating to the direct intercourse between The United States and the British Colonies in the West Indies. And the Article D, contained precisely the same list of articles importable, and the same limitations with regard to export, in Vessels of The United States, as were already contained in the Act of Parliament of the 8th, and in the Order in Council of the 27th of May, 1818; and the Article further proposed an equalization of duties of impost and tonnage on the Vessels and articles employed in the trade, whether British or American. So that the proposition really was, that The United States should open to the British a free and equal participation of the intercourse between The United States and the Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick; then, by the counteracting Regulations of the two Countries, exclusively enjoyed by The United States themselves. The Article relating to the intercourse between The United States and Bermuda, was yet more remarkable. By an Act of Parliament of 1st July, 1812, [52 Geo. 3, ch. 79,] sugar and coffee, the produce of any British Colony or Plantation in the West Indies, imported into the Island of Bermuda in British ships, was allowed to be exported from the Port of St. George to The United States, in any Foreign Ship above 60 tons burthen, belonging to any Country in amity with Great Britain; and a list of articles enumerated was allowed to be imported from The United States to the said Port, in any Foreign Ship belonging to any Country in amity with Great Britain; and this list contained, besides every article enumerated in the proposal of the British Plenipotentiaries, horses and cattle, sheep, hogs, poultry, and live stock of any sort, which, in the British proposal, were excluded from the Bermuda list, and transferred to that of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. To the articles of sugar and coffee, exportable by the Act of Parliament, the proposal added molasses, cocoa nuts, ginger, and pimento. These 2 articles, therefore, were to be considered as the equivalents asked of The United States for the admission proposed of their Vessels any British Ports in the West Indies, which should be open to the Vessels of any other Foreign Power or State. to The following parallel lists of articles, proposed to be admitted for importation and exportation, in the intercourse between The United States, on the one part, and Nova Scotia, with New Brunswick, Bermuda, and the West Indies, on the other, by the 3 connected and inseparable Articles proposed by the British Plenipotentiaries, may serve further to elucidate the character of the proposal. By another Act of Parliament, of 23d May, 1818, the articles of tobacco, rice, grain, peas, beans, and flour, were allowed to be imported in British Vessels, into any British Colony in the West Indies, or on the Continent of South America, from any Foreign European Colony in America. And peas and beans were allowed to be imported into the enumerated Ports of the British West Indies from Foreign European, the Possession in the West Indies, and on the Continent of America, in Foreign single decked Vessels. ment. In the Letter from this Department to you, of the 7th May, 1819, a comparative view was taken between the articles which had been proposed at the 3d Conference by the American Plenipotentiaries, at the Negotiation of the Convention, and the Articles proposed at the 5th and 8th Conferences, by the British Plenipotentiaries, and then received by the American Plenipotentiaries for reference to their GovernAnd a Draft of 2 Articles was enclosed with the Letter, forming a compromise between the two proposals reviewed, and which you were authorized to offer, as a final proposal on the part of this Government in relation to the subject. These Articles, acceding to a limited and enumerated list of Ports of importation in the British Colonies, and to a limited and enumerated list of articles importable in them, adhered only to two principles. 1. That the list of importable articles should be the same for the West Indies, for Bermuda, and for the North American Provinces; and, 2. That all the duties and charges, imposable upon them, should be equalized; and, particularly, that no other, or higher duties, should be charged upon them than upon similar articles, when imported from any other Country, or Place, whatsoever. Your Letter, of the 14th of June, 1819, to this Department, announced that a Copy of this Draft had been submitted by you to the consideration of the British Government, and your Letter, of 17th September, 1819, that they had declined accepting it. At the Conference between you and Lord Castlereagh, when he informed you of this determination, he stated the special objections to the project upon which it had been founded, and you repeated to him the views of the Government of The United States on which the offer had been made. The Supplementary Navigation Act of Congress was approved on the 15th of May, 1820. This, then, was the relative state of the intercourse between The United States and, 1. the Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick; 2. The Island of Bermuda; and, 3. The British Colonies in the West Indies, from the 30th September, 1820, till the passage of the Act of Parliament, of 24 h June, 1822. By the Acts of Parliament of 3d Geo. 4, ch. 42 and 43, the Navigation Act of 12 Charles 2, ch. 18, was repealed, so far as related to the importation of goods and merchandize into Great Britain. But the American Trade Acts, and the Acts relating to importations from the |