tiaries, would be to deprive us even of the portion of the carrying which we have already secured by our existing Laws, and which we believe we can further secure; and that it is far better, for the harmony of the 2 Nations, to avoid any bargain, in which either Party, after agreeing to it, shall have, by the experience of its effect, the sentiment of having been over-reached brought home to its councils. We ask for no such engagement on the part of Great Britain. We have too much confidence in the wisdom and liberality of her Cabinet, to believe that they would wish to obtain such an engagement from us. At every step of counteracting regulation that we have taken, or shall take, in this concern, we proceed with reluctance, because we are convinced it might be adjusted more to the mutual interest, and mutua} understanding, by amicable arrangement, than by countervailing Legislation. But to whatever arrangement we may subscribe, we are convinced it can answer no useful purpose, unless it shall prove to be founded on the reciprocity of real effects, instead of hinging upon that of words.

Your Power, heretofore given, is considered sufficient to authorize you to sign 2 Additional Articles, of the substance of those enclosed, with any Person or Persons duly authorized by the British Government. If agreed to, they may be declared supplementary to those of the Convention of the 20th of October, and to be of the same duration. They must of course be submitted to the sanction of the Senate for Ratification here. I am, &c. Mr. Rush.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

(Enclosure.)-American Projet of Additional Articles.

ART. I. The Vessels of The United States and British Vessels shall have liberty to import, from any of the Ports of The United States to which any Foreign Vessels are permitted to come, into any of the following Ports, namely; Kingston, Savannah Le Mar, Montego Bay, Santa Lucia, Antonio, Saint Ann, Falmouth, and Porta Maria in the Island of Jamaica, San Joseph in the Island of Trinidad, Scarborough in the Island of Tobago, Saint George in the Island of Grenada, Kingston in the Island of Saint Vincent, Bridgetown in the Island of Barbadoes, Roseau in the Island of Dominica, Saint John's in the Island of Antigua, Road Harbour in the Island of Tortola, the principal Port of Turk's Island, Nassau in the Island of New Providence, Pitt's Town in Crooked Island, and the principal Port of the Island of Bermuda ;-tobacco, pitch, tar, turpentine, staves, headings, shingles, horses, mules, poultry, live stock, and provisions of all sorts, (except salted provisions of any description, whether meat, fish, or butter,) such articles being the growth, produce, or manufacture, of The United States, [and any other articles of the growth, produce, or manufacture, of The United States, the importation of which, into the above-men

tioned Ports, shall not be entirely prohibited from every other Foreign Country, or Place.] And the Vessels of The United States and British Vessels shall have liberty to export, from any of the said Ports of His Britannic Majesty's Dominions, to any of the aforesaid Ports of The United States, rum, molasses, and salt, being of the growth, produce, or manufacture, of any of the above-mentioned Dominions, [and any other articles of the said growth, produce, or manufacture, the exportation of which to any other Foreign Country, or Place, shall not be entirely prohibited.]

The Vessels of either Party, employed in the Trade provided for by this Article, shall be admitted in the Ports of the other, as abovementioned, without paying any other, or higher duties, or charges, than those payable in the same Ports, by the Vessels of such other Party; and they shall have liberty, respectively, to touch, during the same voyage, at one or more of the above-mentioned Ports of the other Party, for the purpose of disposing of their inward, and of taking on board their outward, cargoes.

No other or higher Duties shall be paid, on the importation from The United States into the above-mentioned Ports of the British Colonies, or from the said Ports into The United States, of any of the articles importable, by virtue of this Convention, when imported in the Vessels of either of the 2 Nations, than when imported in the Vessels of the other; nor when imported directly between The United States and the said Ports, or vice versâ; and when imported in a circuitous manner. No other or higher Duties shall be charged upon any of the above-mentioned articles, when imported by virtue of this Convention, into The United States, or into any of the Ports aforesaid, than may be charged on similar articles, when imported from any Foreign Country into The United States, or from any other Country or Place whatsoever into the said Ports. The same Duties shall be paid, and the same Bounties shall be allowed, on the exportation of any articles which may, by virtue of this Article, be exported from the said British Ports to The United States, or from The United States to the said Ports, whether exported in Vessels of The United States, or in British Vessels.

II. The Vessels of The United States and British Vessels shall have liberty to export, from any of the Ports of The United States to which any Foreign Vessels are permitted to come, to the Ports of Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and St. John's, in New Brunswick, and to any other Port within the said Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, to which Vessels of any other Foreign Nation shall be admitted, any article, of the growth, produce, or manufacture, of The United States, which, by virtue of the preceding Article, is importable from The United States into the British Colonial Ports therein named; and upon the same terms, in regard to the payment of duties and charges ;

and they shall have liberty to import, from any of the aforesaid Ports within the Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, into any of the aforesaid Ports of The United States, gypsum and grindstones, the produce or manufacture of the said Provinces, and any other article of the said produce or manufacture, the exportation of which from the said Provinces, and the importation of which into The United States, to or from any other Foreign Country, shall not be altogether prohibited. The Vessels of either Party, employed in this Trade, shall pay no other or higher duties or charges, than those of the other. The same Duties of importation and of exportation shall be paid on the articles imported or exported, by virtue of this Article, and the same Bounties allowed on their exportation, whether in Vessels of The United States, or in British Vessels.

(Extract.)

No. 56.-Mr. Rush to Mr. Adams.

London, 14th June, 1819. I was honoured, on the 8th instant, with your Despatch, No. 17, of the 7th of May.

On the 9th I addressed a Note to Lord Castlereagh, to request an interview, that I might proceed to lay before this Government, without losing any time, the determinations to which the President had come on the important subject of the commercial intercourse between The United States and the West Indies. His Lordship appointed yesterday for me to wait upon him.

I commenced with calling to mind the point at which the discussions had left off, upon this branch of the Negotiation, last autumn, and gave a new assurance of the President's earnest desire to see this Trade opened, upon a footing of entire and liberal reciprocity, rather than stand any longer upon the conflict of arbitrary Laws. In this spirit I was instructed to offer a Projet, which had been carefully drawn up, upon the basis of a compromise between the pretensions of the 2 Parties, and which, indeed, would be found to fall in so entirely with the Propositions of Great Britain, in some respects, and to make such an approximation to them in others, that a hope was cherished of its proving acceptable.

That, in particular, it would be found to adopt the description of naval stores, and of lumber, as articles to be exported from The United States, upon which the British Plenipotentiaries had themselves insisted-confining the former to pitch, tar, and turpentine; and the latter to staves, heading, and shingles; contrary to the more enlarged signification which it had been the desire of the American Plenipotentiaries to give to them. That it acquiesced, also, in the exclusion of all salted provisions, including the important article of fish. That it; moreover, came wholly into the British views, in consenting to the exclusion of sugar and coffee, as articles to be imported into The United

States from the British West Indies, it being understood that the above traffic was to be open upon equal terms, in all respects, to American and British Vessels.

In return for such an accommodation to the colonial views of Great Britain, the Projet asked, on the other hand, that the List of articles exportable from The United States to the West Indies, should be the same as to Bermuda, and to the British North American Colonies; that the articles exportable to The United States should be confined to such as were of the growth, produce, or manufacture, of the above Islands or Colonies; and that the same Duties, and no more, should be payable on importations from The United States into the West Indies, whether the articles were brought directly or indirectly, as on similar articles imported into the West Indies from any Foreign Country, or from any of the British Colonies.

With this outline of its contents, I handed a Copy of the Projet which came enclosed in your Despatch, to his Lordship. The discussions between the Plenipotentiaries of the 2 Governments having recently been so ample on the matters which it embraces, I thought that nothing was likely to be gained by my leaving room for the possible hope that any of its essential provisions would be departed from. Accordingly, I deemed it best to say with candour, in the first instance, that, as it was offered, so was it to be taken; for that my present Instructions would admit of no deviations, unless on points verbal, or otherwise immaterial. I shall bear in mind that the parts within crotchets may be omitted. His Lordship received it with an assurance that a full and candid consideration would be given to it. The pressure of Parliamentary business might, he said, delay an attention to it for some weeks; but that, at as early a day as was practicable, it would be taken up. I replied, that I believed the great object would be attained on our side, if a decision were communicated to me in full time to be made known to the President before the next Session of Congress. Should our Propositions prove acceptable, I was empowered, I added, to make them supplementary to the Convention of the 20th of October, subject always to the Ratification of the Senate. I here closed, having endeavoured, in the course of my remarks, to convey to his Lordship's mind those general reasonings applicable to our Propositions, which are unfolded in your Despatch, and to which I shall again advert on future occasions, should it become necessary. The confidential Report of the 19th of February, by the Committee of Foreign Relations, in the Senate, was safely received, under cover of your Despatch.

The Hon. J. Q. Adums.

RICHARD RUSH.

No. 57.-Mr. Rush to Mr. Adams.

(Extract.) London, 17th September, 1819. LORD Castlereagh came to town on the 15th instant, and granted me an interview yesterday on the business of the West India Trade.

Holding in his hands the Proposals I had submitted, his Lordship premised, that he thought it would perhaps be best for him to answer them in the same general way that the British Articles, submitted through my Predecessor, in 1817, had been answered; that is, not in any formal manner, but merely by a word of conversation with me. I said that I was sure that the form of the answer would make no difference; its transmission to my Government, in whatever mode his Lordship might be pleased to convey it to me, would doubtless effect every substantial purpose.

Our Proposals, he said,

In the answer there was no hesitation. were not of a nature to form the basis of any Agreement between the 2 Countries. They would effect an entire subversion of the British Colonial System. From this System they were not prepared to depart. Their Colonies were, in many respects, burdensome, and even liable to involve the Country in Wars. Garrisons, and other Establishments were constantly maintained in them, at a heavy charge. In return, it was just that they should be encumbered with regulations, the operation of which might help to meet, in part, the expenses which they created. The great principle of these regulations was known to be the reservation of an exclusive right to the benefit of all their trade; a principle, of which the Free-Port Acts had, it was true, produced some relaxation; but, it had never been the intention of this Government to do any thing more than offer to us a participation in these Acts. Some modifications of them would have been acquiesced in, suggested by local causes, and an anxious desire that our 2 Countries might come to an understanding on this part of their intercourse. But, to break down the System, was no part of their plan. Our Proposals, therefore, could not be accepted. Such were his remarks.

I observed, that to break down the System was not our aim. All that we desired was, that the trade, as far as it was gone into at all, should be open to the Vessels of both Nations upon precisely equal terms. If the System fell by such an arrangement, it was as an incident; and only showed how difficult it seemed to render its long continuance consistent with a proper measure of commercial justice towards us.

So broad and unequivocal was his Lordship's refusal, that it seemed almost superfluous to ask him to be more particular; yet, perceiving in me a wish to be made acquainted rather more specifically with the objections, he said that he would not scruple to mention them, without, however, entering into details, for which he was not prepared, and which had been amply unfolded on both sides during