POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL 21 



of a belligerent, some did not unload, and 

 the intention of most of them was to make 

 practically a direct voyage, but the pre- 

 scriptive right of five years' trading under 

 these conditions entitled America to at 

 least a proper notice, and to seize her ves- 

 sels without such notice was a mild form 

 of piracy. The fact was, the British mer- 

 chants 1 were jealous of the rapid growth of 

 American trade, and the decisions of the 



1 A London paper of the seventh of August says, "An 

 order, we understand, was sent to all the out ports some 

 days ago, instructing cruisers to detain all American ves- 

 sels which have on board property not the product of the 

 United States. This order has already been acted on and 

 several vessels stopped. It has been ascertained that the 

 American ships have for a length of time been in the prac- 

 tice of going to the Isle of France, and the French ports in 

 the West Indies, to bring away products which they finally 

 carried into French or Dutch ports. Their usual course 

 was to touch at an American port to give the cargo the ap- 

 pearance of being American property. But it is very well 

 known that such cargoes were never landed. The mer- 

 chants at Leeds and the rest of Yorkshire have come to 

 a resolution not to ship any goods in a neutral vessel to 

 any port whatever. American ships to American ports 

 excepted." Columbian Centinel, Sept. 14, 1805. 



