336 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1813. 



tions of its system, might render 

 perseverance on the part of Great 

 Britain in retaliatory measures un- 

 necessary, or if this hope should 

 prove delusive, that his majesty's 

 government might be enabled, in 

 the absence of all irritating and re- 

 strictive regulations on either side, 

 to enter with the government of 

 the United States into amicable ex- 

 planations, for the purposeof ascer- 

 taining whether, if the necessity of 

 retaliatory measures should unfor- 

 tunately continue to operate, the 

 particular measures to be acted 

 upon by Great Britain could be 

 rendered more acceptable to the 

 American government, than those 

 hitherto pursued." 



In order to provide for the con- 

 tingency of a declaration of war 

 on the part of the United States, 

 previous to the arrival in America 

 of the said order of Revocation, 

 instructions were sent to his ma- 

 jesty's minister plenipotentiary ac- 

 credited to the United States (the 

 execution of which instructions, in 

 consequence of tlie discontinuance 

 of Mr. Foster's functions, were at 

 a subsequent period entrusted to 

 admiral sir John Borlase War- 

 ren), directing him to propose a 

 cessation of hostilities, should they 

 have commenced ; and further to 

 offer a simultaneous repeal of the 

 orders in council on the one side ; 

 and of the restrictive laws on 

 British ships and commerce on the 

 other. 



They were also respectively em- 

 powered to acquaint the American 

 government, in reply to any in- 

 quiries with respect to the blockade 

 of May, 1806, whilst the British 

 government must continue to 

 maintain its legality, «« that in 



point of fact this particular blockade 

 had been discontinued for a length 

 of time, having been merged in the 

 general retaliatory blockade of the 

 enemy's ports under the orders in 

 council, and that his majesty's 

 government had no intention of 

 recurring to this, or to any other of 

 the blockades of the enemy's ports, 

 founded upon the ordinary and 

 accustomed principles of mari- 

 time law, which were in force pre- 

 vious to the orders in council, with- 

 out a new notice to neutral powers 

 in the usual form." 



The American government, be- 

 fore they received intimation of 

 the course adopted by the Bri- 

 tish government; had, in fact, pro- 

 ceeded to the extreme measure of 

 declaring war, and issuing " let* 

 ters of marque," notwithstanding 

 they were previously in posses- 

 sion of the report of the French 

 minister for foreign affairs, of the 

 12th of March 1812, promulgat- 

 ing anew the Berlin and Milan 

 decrees, as fundamental laws of 

 the French empire, under the false 

 and extravagant pretext, that the 

 monstrous principles therein con- 

 tained were to be found in the 

 treaty of Utrecht, and were there- 

 fore binding upon all states. From 

 the penalties of this code no nation 

 was to be exempt, which did not 

 accept it, not only as the rule of 

 its own conduct, but as a law, 

 the observance of which it was also 

 required to enforce upon Great 

 Britain. 



In a manifesto, accompanying 

 their declaration of hostilities, in 

 addition to the former complaints 

 against the orders in council, a 

 long list of grievances was brought 

 forward ; some trivial in them- 



