338 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1813. 



tion immediately to restore the re- 

 lations of peace and amity between 

 the two powers. 



The order in council of the 23rd 

 of June being officially commu- 

 nicated in America, the govern- 

 ment of the United States saw 

 nothing in the repeal of the orders 

 in council, which should of itself 

 restore peace, unless Great Britain 

 were prepared, in the first instance, 

 substantially to relinquish the right 

 of impressing her own seamen, 

 when found on board American 

 merchant ships. 



. The proposal of an armistice, 

 and of a simultaneous repeal of the 

 restrictive measures on both sides, 

 subsequently made by the com- 

 manding officer of his majesty's 

 naval forces on the American coast, 

 were received in the same hostile 

 spirit by the government of the 

 United States. The suspension of 

 the practice of impressment was 

 insisted upon, in the correspon- 

 dence which passed on that occa- 

 sion, as a necessary preliminary to 

 a cessation of hostilities : negocia- 

 tion, it was stated, might take place 

 without any suspension of the ex- 

 ercise of this right, and also with- 

 out any armistice being concluded ; 

 but Great Britain was required pre- 

 viously to agree, without any 

 knowledge of the adequacy of the 

 system which could be substituted, 

 to negociate upon the basis of ac- 

 cepting the legislative regulations 

 of a foreign state, as the sole equi- 

 valent for the exercise of a right, 

 which she has felt to be essential 

 to the support of her maritime 

 power. 



If America, by demanding this 

 preliminary concession, intends to 

 deny the validity of that right, ia 



that denial Great Britain cannot 

 acquiesce, nor will she give coun- 

 tenance to such a pretension, by 

 acceding to its suspension, much 

 less to its abandonment, as a basis 

 on which to treat. If the Ameri- 

 can government has devised, or 

 conceives it can devise, regulations, 

 which may safely be accepted by 

 Great Britain, as a substitute for 

 the exercise of the right in ques- 

 tion, it is for them to bring for- 

 ward such a plan for considera- 

 tion. The British government haa 

 never attempted to exclude this 

 question from amongst those on 

 which the two states might have 

 to negociate ; it has, on the con- 

 trary, uniformly professed its readi- 

 ness to receive and discuss any pro- 

 position on this subject, coming 

 from the American government : it 

 has never asserted any exclusive 

 right, as to the impressment of 

 British seamen from American 

 vessels, which it was not prepared 

 to acknowledge, as appertaining 

 .equally to the government of the 

 United States, with respect to 

 American seamen when found on 

 board British merchant ships ; but 

 it cannot, by acceding to such a 

 basis in the first instance, either 

 assume, or admit that to be prac- 

 ticable, which, when attempted on 

 former occasions, has always been 

 found to be attended with great 

 difficulties : such difficulties, as the 

 British commissioners in 1806, ex- 

 pressly declared, after an attentive 

 consideration of the suggestions 

 brought forward by the commis- 

 sioners on the part of America 

 they were unable to surmount. 



Whilst this proposition, trans- 

 mitted through the British admiral, 

 was pending in America, another 



