POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL 75 



ment by England of American sailors, two 

 sides, as is usual, but what is not usual, 

 there was no compromise between them, no 

 middle ground on which both could unite. 

 Either England had to renounce what she 

 believed to be an inherent right, strength- 

 ened by precedent, or America must be 

 false to her principles, and sacrifice what 

 she claimed were the rights of man. 



England, from a time which ran far back 

 in her history, had claimed the right to re- 

 tain the allegiance of her subjects, even 

 when they had shown themselves forgetful 

 or unwilling, and had wandered to a for- 

 eign country. In time of peace she might 

 not care to enforce this right, but when war 

 came she insisted on her right to reclaim her 

 subjects, whenever or wherever she found 

 them on the high seas. 



Of her right to reclaim them from a ship 

 in an English port, there was no question. 

 This claim of England's that a native-born 

 citizen has no right to expatriate himself, 

 was not peculiar to that country or time. 



