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British Colonies in America and the West Indies, were left in full force.

The Act of 3d Geo. 4, ch. 44, purports to be an Act to regulate the Trade between His Majesty's Possessions in America and the West Indies, and other Places in America and the West Indies.

It leaves the principle of the Navigation Act of Charles 2, untouched; but, by the first section, repeals the whole series of what were called American Trade Acts: that is, Acts regulating the trade between The United States of America and the British American and West India Colonies, since the independence of this Country, beginning with the Act of 28 Geo. 3, ch. 39, and ending with 1 and 2 Geo. 4. ch. 7, (25 statutes,) for which it substitutes the following system :

1. By the 3d section, it provides that, from and after the passing of the Act, a certain list of enumerated articles shall be importable into a certain list of euumerated Ports in the British American Colonies, insular or continental, in British Vessels, or in Foreign Vessels, bona fide the built of, and owned by, the inhabitants of the Country of which the said articles are the growth, produce, or manufacture; or British built Vessels, become their property, and navigated with a master, and three-fourths of the mariners, at least, belonging to such Country, or Place, provided that, in the Fo cign Vessels, the articles shall only be brought directly from the Country, or Place, of which they are the growth, produce, or manufacture.

2. By the 4th section, it allows the exportation from the enumerated Ports, in British Vessels, or in any Foreign Ship or Vessel, as aforesaid, of any article of the growth, produce, or manufacture, of any of the British Dominions, or any other article legally imported into the said Ports, (arms and naval stores excepted, unless by license from His Majesty's Secretary of State :) provided, that, in Foreign Ships, they shall be exportable only direct to the Country or State in America or the West Indies, to which the Vessel belongs; and export bonds are to be given, in a penalty equal to half the value of the articles, that they shall be landed at the Port or Ports for which entered; and certificate of the landing to be produced within twelve months.

By the 7th section, it is provided, that upon a certain portion, enumerated in Schedule C, of the articles enumerated as importable in Schedule B, certain duties shall be levied and collected, when imported from any Foreign Islands, State, or Country, under the authority of the Act.

The 11th section enacts, that the same duties upon the Foreign article shall also be levied, if imported direct from any Port of Great Britain and Ireland.

The 14th section authorizes the exportation, in British Vessels, of the articles enumerated in Schedule B, to any other British Colony or

Plantation in America or the West Indies, or to any Port of Great Britain and Ireland, subject to the provisions of the Navigation Act of 12 Ch. 2, ch. 18; and of 22 and 23 Ch. 2. ch. 26. and 20 George 3 ch. 10.

The 15th section authorizes the King, by Order in Council, to prohibit trade and intercourse with any Country or Island in America or the West Indies, if it shall appear to His Majesty that the privileges granted by this Act to Foreign Ships and Vessels, are not allowed to British Ships and Vessels trading to and from any such Country, under the provisions of the Act; and, in case such Order in Council shall be issued, then, during the time of its being in force, none of the provisions of the Act shall apply to any Country or State, the trade with which, under the provisions of the Act, shall be prohibited by the Order in Council.

The 17th section prohibits, on penalty of the forfeiture of Vessel and Cargo, the importation into the enumerated Ports, from any Foreign Country on the Continent of America, or any Island in the West Indies, of any articles, except those enumerated in the Schedule B.

And, the 18th section prohibits, upon like penalty, the importation or exportation of any articles whatever, from, or to any Foreign Country, on the Continent of North or South America, or any Foreign Island in the West Indies, into, or from any Port of any British Colony, Plantation, or Island, in America or the West Indies, not enumerated in the Schedule A.

If the object of this Act of Parliament was to open the Ports of the British Colonies in the West Indies and in America, to the Vessels of The United States, upon terms of reciprocity, it was not well adapted to its purpose.

In the 15th section, it is declared to be the intention and meaning of the Act, that the privileges granted by it to Foreign Ships and Vessels, shall be confined to the Ships and Vessels of such Countries only as give the like privileges to British Ships and Vessels in their Ports in America and the West Indies. And the King is authorised to issue His Order in Council, prohibiting trade and intercourse under the authority of the Act, if it shall appear to him that the privileges granted by this Act to Foreign Ships and Vessels, are not allowed to British Vessels trading to, and from, any such Country or Island, under the provisions of this Act.

Now, what are the privileges granted in this Act to the Vessels of The United States? That they may bring directly, and not otherwise, from some Port of The United States to certain Colonial Ports, named in the Act of Parliament, and none others, certain articles of merchandize, specifically named, and none others. That, upon their arrival, of all the articles which they are permitted to bring, they shall pay enormous duties upon that portion which consists of the productions

of The United States, consumable in the Colonies themselves; and the only portion which, in the results of the trade, would be to The United States profitable export, and to one part of the Colonies necessary import. And these duties are to be paid, while the British Vessels, enjoying all the privileges granted by this Act, possess the additional and exclusive privilege of carrying to the same West India Ports, directly, or indirectly, the same articles: thus heavily charged when coming from The United States, but free from all duty when carried from the Colony in North America to the Colony in the West Indies.

Again: the Vessel of The United States, admitted to the above privileges, has the further privilege, if she can procure a cargo, to return directly, and not otherwise, to The United States; and to give bond, upon penalty, equal to half the value of said cargo, for the landing it at the Port or Ports for which entered; and for producing a Certificate thereof, within 12 months. But, there is a charge, not indeed imposed by this Act, but from which this Act has not relieved them: that of paying a Colonial export duty of 4 or 5 per cent. ad valorem upon this return cargo. To this charge, British Vessels may also be liable, if their owners choose to incur it; but, if they prefer exporting their cargoes without paying any export duty, they are free to go to any part of the British Dominions in Europe or America. They are not required to give the export bond for the landing of the articles at the Port or Ports for which entered, and for producing, within 12 months, a Certificate thereof.

By the Letter of the Act of Parliament, if the privileges, granted by it to the Vessels of The United States, should appear to the King not to be allowed to British Vessels trading under the provisions of the Act, He may, by an Order in Council, at his discretion, prohibit trade and intercourse under the authority of the Act.

The words," the privileges granted by this Act," are explained by the context of the section, to mean like privileges, to be allowed by the Laws of The United States to British Vessels employed in the same trade.

If an Act of Congress had passed, admitting British Vessels, coming from Colonial British Ports in America and the West Indies, to enter a certain specified list of Ports in The United States, selected at the pleasure of Congress, and no others; if it had allowed them to bring in those Vessels an enumerated list of articles, (from which rum and molasses, for example, should be excluded,) and no others; if it had included, for example, sugar and coffee among the admissible articles, but burthened them with duties equivalent to ten per cent. ad valorem, more than would be paid upon the same articles imported from elsewhere; if it had compelled the British Vessels, so admitted, if they took a return cargo, to give bonds for landing it at the Port or Ports in the British Colonies, for which the Vessel should clear out; and if,

not by the Act of Congress, but by some Law of the State, from which this privileged British Vessel should depart, an export duty of 4 or 5 per cent. ad valorem, should be levied upon this her return cargo, then British Vessels in the Ports of The United States, would have been allowed like privileges with those granted by the Act of Parliament to Vessels of The United States in the Colonial Ports. And so exactly like would they have been, that, under such an Act of Congress, and such a grant of privileges to British Vessels, the conditional authority given by the 15th section of the Act of Parliament to the King, of prohibiting the trade and intercourse, would not have attached, according to the letter of the Act, although it might have appeared to His Majesty, that "the privileges granted by this Act" were not allowed to British Vessels trading to, and from, The United States, under its provisions.

The privileges granted by this Act, could of course, be allowed only by the same authority from which it emanated; that is, by the British Parliament. Like privileges would have been such as I have now described; that is, privileges subject to like limitations and restrictions, which, as the bare exposition of them here will shew, would have been found to be no privileges at all.

The Act of Parliament opened certain Colonial Ports, upon certain very onerous conditions, to Vessels of The United States. If The United States had opened their Ports to British Vessels from the Colonies, without condition or limitation, the privileges of British Vessels in our Ports would have been in no wise like those of the Vessels of The United States in the Colonial Ports. In point of fact, the privilege of the British Vessels would have been exclusive, and that of the American Vessels exclusion.

Immediately after receiving the Act of Parliament, which opened certain Ports of the British Colonies in the West Indies, and in America, to the Vessels of The United States, the President, exercising the authority given him by anticipation in the Act of Congress of 6th May, 1822, issued his Proclamation, opening the Ports of The United States, generally, to British Vessels, coming from any of the Ports enumerated in the Act of Parliament. And, in this Proclamation, he gave the most liberal construction, for the benefit of British Vessels, to the Act of Congress on which it was founded: for, by the Laws of The United States, when the Act of Congress passed, and until the Proclamation issued, the Ports of The United States were closed against British Vessels from any of the British Colonies in the West Indies or in America; while, by the British Laws, the Ports of St. John and Halifax, in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, those of Port St. George and Hamilton, in the Island of Bermuda, and the Ports of the Bahama Islands, were opened to Vessels of The United States. These Ports, therefore, the Act of Parliameut did not open to our Vessels, and the Proclamation, by opening the Ports of The United States to Vessels coming from

them, was much more extensive in its operation than the Act of Parliament itself.

As reciprocal to the rules and restrictions under which the trade was permitted, by the British Parliament, the President's Proclamation provided, that no articles should be imported into The United States in British Vessels coming from the West Indies, other than articles of the growth, produce, or manufacture, of the British West India Colonies, and none other than articles of the growth, produce, or manufacture, of the British Colonies in North America or Newfoundland, in British Vessels, coming respectively from that Island or from North American Colonies; and, by the existing Revenue Laws of The United States, all British Vessels and their Cargoes, coming from any of the Colonies, remained subject to the Foreign tonnage and impost duties. In my Letter to you of 27th August, 1822, enclosing a Copy of this Proclamation, I suggested to you, the opinion that some further understanding between the two Governments would be necessary, for regulating this trade in a manner advantageous to the interests of both parties, and the readiness of this Government to enter upon arrangements for that purpose with the British Government.

On the 25th of October, 1822, the British Minister residing here, addressed a Note to this Department, containing representations against the rules and restrictions provided in the Proclamation, as not being specific counterparts to those of the Act of Parliament; and, also claiming exemption from the Foreign tonnage and impost duties, for British Vessels and their Cargoes, coming from the Colonies, because the Act of Parliament subjected British and Foreign Vessels engaged in this trade, only to the same duties and charges; and if there were in the Colonies any discriminating charges against Foreign Vessels, they did not appear in the Act of Parliament.

I have shewn you above, what would have been a specific counterpart to the rules and restrictions of the Act of Parliament, and to the Colonial export duty co-existing with it. Had the President possessed the power of prescribing them by his Proclamation, they would have been in effect equivalent to a total prohibition of the intercourse in British Vessels, and appeared little better than a mockery. But the President had no such power. He could neither select an exclusive list of Ports of admission, nor levy an export duty, nor repeal the Foreign tonnage and impost. Mr. Canning's Note was answered, and he replied. There was, also, much discussion of the subject between us, at personal interviews, in which, as well as in his Notes, he kept me constantly reminded of the authority given by the Act of Parliament to the King, to prohibit the intercourse by an Order in Council, if the privileges granted by this Act should not be allowed to British Vessels, and of the necessity there would be of countervailing discriminations,

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