70 CAPTAIN ZACHARY G. LAMSON 



their obnoxious decrees or orders in council, 

 to make proclamation to that effect, and if 

 within three months the other nation did 

 not follow its example, then those sections 

 of the Non-intercourse Act which forbade 

 importation from or trade with the country 

 so refusing should again be put in force. 



About the same time, March 23, 1810, 

 Napoleon pronounced the "Rambouillet 

 Decree," not published, however, until 

 May 14, confiscating any "American ship 

 or its cargo which was in or might enter any 

 port of France, her colonies, or any territory 

 in possession of French troops." Under 

 this decree, ships and cargoes to the amount 

 of ten million dollars were seized in France, 

 Spain, Italy and Holland. It is probable 

 that some of these so-called American ships 

 were English with simulated papers. 1 



The President, by proclamation, Nov. 2, 



1 "It is an undoubted fact, and one well known to the 

 trade, that most of the English ships that have gone to 

 the north of Europe for the past two years, have taken 

 the American flag and simulated papers. These adven- 



