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scribing every thing relating to it when he returns home; that the mere having to say, I am come back from a journey in Canada, gives a traveller a title to vamp up a full volume of chapters on that country. If a man would describe, in writing, the cornmills or the farm-houses of his own parish, he must first observe them attentively, and then learn somewhat of the nature of mills. and farms, in order to tell his story with safety and correctness. But it seems that a whole continent may be described-its scenery depicted-its wealth estimated-the arts, manners, institutions and habits of its various natives detailed, by any man who can hold a pen, or dictate to a writer,-without any previous knowledge of science, of history, of polity, or of morals-with no talents for reasoning or combination-with scarcely even the smallest attention to the actual state of the things in question, at the moment they are said to have been viewed. This has been the constant subject of our complaints, from the commencement of our ungrateful office to the present day-how fruitless, alas, the article now brought to a conclusion will amply testify. We must still, however, persist in hoping, that some more accomplished travellers will ere long rise amongst us. The state of the world forbids any sanguine expectations that an opportunity will soon be afforded of carrying on new journies; but we know that the most interesting expeditions have already been accomplished by persons well fitted to narrate the result of their labours; and we earnestly hope that they may not any longer delay gratifying the just impatience of the learned to be admitted to a participation of their discoveries. Lord Valentia has already announced his intention of soon complying with this demand. But why does Dr E. D. Clarke delay to fulfil obligations which he long ago came under to the literary world? If he should cast his eye on these pages, we venture to hope that he may be reminded of his just and lawful debt, and no longer withhold from the public a work, which we are confident will prove one of the most valua ble that ever issued from the press.

ART. XIII. An Inquiry into the Causes and Consequences of the Orders in Council, and an Examination of the Conduct of Great Britain towards the Neutral Commerce of America. By Alex. Baring Esq. M. P. Third Edition. 8vo. pp. 179. London,

1808.

The Speech of Lord Erskine in the House of Lords (8. -March 1808) on moving Resolutions against the Legality of the Orders in Coun cil. 8vo. pp. 87. London, 1808.

VOL. XII. NO. 23.

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The

The Speech of Henry Brougham Esq. before the House of Commons, Friday, April 1. 1808, in support of the Petitions from London, Liverpool and Manchester, against the Orders in Council. 8vo. pp. 84. London, 1808.

THERE

HERE never was any war, we believe, so generally admitted to be disastrous as that in which we are now engaged. Hostilities there may have been more murderous, and nearly as extended; but none, within the limits of modern history, attended with consequences so momentous and deplorable. It has not only overturned thrones, and extinguished nations; it has subverted principles, and suppressed feelings. It has not merely broken down the existing institutions of European polity; but destroyed, in appearance, the very principle of the system, by the force of which all these institutions had their existence. On the Continent, since the peace of Tilsit, this is a fire which has burned out; but it rages against this country with greater fury than ever; and is drying up the springs of prosperity in nations that have hitherto been merely spectators of the conflict.

When two of the great powers of Europe go to war, the shock is felt over every part of the habitable globe. For the most part, however, it is felt, by those at a distance, rather as an admonition than an injury; and frequently opens to enterprizing neutrality new channels of prosperity, and fields of exertion. In the present instance, the result has been ultimately different; and the rancour of the contending parties, increasing with the protraction of their contest, has ended at last by interdicting the commerce of the greater part of the world; and not only cutting off, without necessity, the comforts and profits of their own peaceful population, but paralyzing the hand of industry, and arresting the progress of society in nations separated from the scene of tumult, by the intervention of half the globe: The war, therefore, has now assumed, upon both sides, a character of unprecedented oppression and ferocity, and has embodied against its abettors in both countries, a larger band of sufferers than ever before lamented the ambition of rulers, or murmured at the abuses of power. These recent and unparalleled violations of neutral rights must be admitted, we conceive, to be in themselves hateful in the eyes of reason and humanity; and we have the less hesitation in calling them so, because they are evidently considered in this light, even by those who are responsible for our share of them, and who justify and applaud most highly the share we have assumed. The preamble to our Orders in Council, complains loudly of the violent and unprecedented attacks of France on our commerce: and every defence which

has

has been attempted of those Orders, is regularly introduced with a furious vituperation of those lawless proceedings of the enemy, which, it is said, we have been compelled to retaliate. There are some cases, however, in which retaliation would not be honourable; -and many in which it would not be prudent. If a ruffian gallop over a crowd of children, in order to snatch away my hat, I should scarcely be justified in again trampling down the innocents, in order to pursue him; or, if he fire a blunderbuss, loaded only with paper pellets, at me in the market-place, it would hardly be allowable in me to return the compliment, by discharging a cannon loaded with grape, in the same public situation. If my adversary throw a quantity of lumber overboard, in order to bring more guns into action, it could scarcely be thought prudent in me to throw over all my provisions and ammunition, for the same purpose. Such considerations as these, enter unquestionably into the present discussion. But the leading question is, whether what we have done, can be justified as retaliation at all; and whether we may not be considered as substantially the aggressors in this contest, and as having set the first example of that injustice, which France had only threatened, without either the power or the intention of committing.

*

We had occasion, in a former volume, to say a good deal upon the general subject of the rights and the value of neutrals; and, in the conclusion of our last Number, ventured to lay before our readers a few observations on the extraordinary system adopted with regard to them, by our late Orders in Council. Since that time, the three works, of which the titles are prefixed, have come into our hands; and as there is reason to believe that a subject of such incalculable importance both to the prosperity and the reputation of the country, is still very imperfecly understood by the great body of the people, we have thought it our duty to avail ourselves of the opportunity afforded by those excellent publications, to lay before them a clear and concise view of the whole facts and reasonings that bear upon this most momentous question. A part of the misconception which still exists on the subject, originates, we have no doubt, in the studied obscurity and complexity of the language of the Orders in Council themselves, and the extreme vagueness of the declamations in which their justification has been attempted. In reality, however, nothing can be more simple, or easily comprehended, than the question as to their justice or policy. It is exhausted, we think, and most satisfactorily settled in the three pamphlets now referred to; and, while we earnestly recommend them to the perusal of all our readers,

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Vol. VIII. p. 13, &c.

readers, we shall endeavour to give a condensed and impartial sketch of the grounds on which we think it ought to be determined.

The facts in the case are few; and liable to no dispute. In November 1806, Bonaparte issued a decree at Berlin, by which he declared the British islands to be in a state of blockade, and announced his intention to capture all vessels trading to these countries. He also shut the ports of the countries under his authority, against all vessels which had last cleared out from Great Britain; and subjected to confiscation all cargoes of British produce or manufacture. In aid of this last regulation, he afterwards declared that all neutral vessels coming into any port in his dominions, should bring with them what is called a certificate of origin;' being a certificate under the hand of the French consul at the port of shipment, that the cargo was not of British produce or manufacture; and that all vessels met at sea without such a certificate, should be liable to capture.

This was the French decree, iffued, as we have seen, in November 1806. From the state of their naval force, it will eafily be understood, that it could not be enforced in its moft material points; and it fhall be fhown immediately, that no attempt was made to enforce it, even where such attempt might have been effectual. It was probably intended chiefly to alarm or to provoke us; and it seems to have answered that purpose fufficiently in the end. In January 1807, the late Miniftry iffued an order, subjecting to feizure all neutral veffels trading from one hoftile port in Europe to another with hoftile property; or interdicting, in short, the coafting trade of the enemy to neutrals. Ten months elapfed without any other movement in either cabinet; till, at laft, in November 1807, just a year after the publication of the Berlin decree, our Orders in Council appeared, containing these two subftantial propofitions. First, that France, and all its tributary ftates, fhould be held to be in a state of blockade; and all veffels feized which attempted to trade from any neutral port to those countries, or from them to any neutral port: and, fecondly, that all veffels fhould be liable to feizure which fhould have aboard any fuch certificate of origin as was required by the Berlin decree. Neutral veffels intended for a French or hoftile port, are directed, at all events, to touch first at Great Britain; from which, after paying certain duties, they may, in fome cafes, be allowed to proceed; and in all cafes they are permitted, and indeed enjoined, to come to Great Britain, when clearing out with a cargo from any port of the enemy.

Such is the decree which has been iffued and enforced by our Government for the last fix months. There are only two quef

tions which arife with regard to it; but they include every thing which can affect the merits of any public meafure. Had we any right to make fuch a decree? and will it do us good or harm, now that we have made it? Is it just in fhort-and is it expedient? If the answer to the laft queftion were clearly favourable, we fear that the other could fcarcely obtain a very fair hearing. As it is, we believe, it will not be difputed that they muft both be anfwered in the same manner. The juftice and legality of the Orders ftand exactly upon the fame ground with their expediency; and the reader, who is fatisfied that they are indefenfible upon principle, certainly will have no occafion to regret this conclufion, from any confideration of their confequences,

That they go near to annihilate the commerce of neutrals, is the first feature in these new measures of policy. Taken in com→ bination with the Berlin decree, they interdict the whole foreign trade of all neutral nations: they prohibit every thing which that decree had allowed; and they enjoin thofe very things which are there made a ground of confifcation. France, it is true, wants the power to enforce the greater part of her own enact ments; but what the can enforce, our Orders compel her to make effectual. We take all the veffels that attempt to pafs between the ports of the enemy and neutrals; and the enemy, of course, feizes and detains all that attempt to come to him from us. Between the two, the trade of the neutral with the enemy is totally deftroyed, and our blockade of the whole Continent of Europe carried into complete and vigorous effect. Our own direct trade with the neutral indeed may remain; but prodigiously limited in its extent, both by our no longer having occafion for any of those commodities which we formerly took to reexport to the Continent, and by the neutral being obliged, in like manner, to limit his imports to fuch articles as he can confume at home, and pay for from his own produce;-to fay nothing of the risk of capture for want of a certificate of origin-and the hazard, or rather the certainty,. of open war from the enemy, in confequence of fubmitting to our decree of blockade, and difregarding his.

Here, then, is an enormous injury done to the neutral, under pretence of a blockade, and of retaliation on the enemy. That a general blockade of ports not actually watched or invefted, is contrary to the law of nations, and totally ineffectual as againft neu, trals, is fettled by the uniform decifions of our own courts, even in the prefent war; and will not be difputed by the fiercest advocates of the Orders in Council. But the defence is, that our blockade was but a retaliation of that which had been impofed by P 3

*Robinson's Reports, Vol. I. p. 154, &c.

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