406 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1813. 



tercourse of the Russian emperor, 

 and this pacific manifestation on 

 the part of the United States, time 

 only can decide. That the senti- 

 ments of Great Britain towards 

 that sovereign will have produced 

 an acceptance of his offered media- 

 tion, must be presumed. That no 

 adequate motives exist, to prefer 

 a continuance of war with the 

 United States to the terms on 

 which they are willing to close it, is 

 certain. 



"The British cabinet also must 

 be sensible, that with respect to 

 the important question of impress- 

 ment, on which the war so essen- 

 tially turns, a search for or seizure 

 of British persons or property on 

 board neutral vessels, in the high 

 seas, is not a belligerent right de- 

 rived from the law of nations ; and 

 it is obvious, that no visit orsearch, 

 or use of force for any purpose, on 

 board the vessel of one indepen- 

 dent power on the high seas, can, in 

 war or peace, be sanctioned by the 

 laws or authority of another power. 

 It is equally obvious, that for the 

 purpose of preserving to each state 

 its seafaring members, by exclud- 

 ing them from the vessels of the 

 other, the mode heretofore pro- 

 posed by the United States, and 

 now enacted by them as an article 

 of municipal policy, cannot for a 

 moment be compared with the 

 mode practised by Great Britain, 

 without a conviction of its title to 

 preference ; inasmuch as the lat- 

 ter leaves the discrimination be- 

 tween the mariners of the two na- 

 tions to officers exposed to un- 

 avoidable bias, as well as, by a de- 

 fect of evidence, to a wrong de- 

 cision under circumstances pre- 

 cluding for the most part the en- 

 forcement of controlling penalties, 

 and where a wrong decision, be- 



sides the irreparable violation of the 

 sacred rights of persons, might 

 frustrate the plans and profits of 

 entire voyages ; whereas the mode 

 assumed by the UnitedStates guards 

 with studied fairness and efficacy, 

 against errors in such eases, and 

 avoids the effect of casual errors, 

 or the safety of navigation, and the 

 success of mercantile expeditions. 



" If the reasonableness of expec- 

 tations,drawn from these considera- 

 tions, could guarantee their fufil- 

 ment, a just peace would not be 

 distant. But it becomes the wis- 

 dom of the national legislature to 

 keep in mind the true policy, or 

 rather the indispensable obligation, 

 of adapting its measures to the sup- 

 position, that the only course to 

 that happy event is in the vigor- 

 ous employment of the resources 

 of war : and painful as the reflec- 

 tion is, this duty is particularly 

 enforced by the spirit and manner 

 in which the war continues to be 

 waged by the enemy, who, un- 

 influenced by the unvaried ex- 

 amples of humanity set them, are 

 adding to the savage fury of it on 

 one frontier, a system of plunder 

 and conflagration on the other, 

 equally forbidden by respect for 

 national character, and the esta- 

 blished rule of civilized warfare. 



" As an encouragement to per- 

 severing and invigorating exer- 

 tions to bring the contest to a 

 happy result, I have the satisfac- 

 tion of being able to appeal to the 

 auspicious progress of our own 

 arms both by land and on the 

 water. 



" In continuation of the brilliant 

 achievements of our infant navy, 

 a signal triumph has been gained 

 by captain Lawrence and bis com- 

 panions in the Hornet sloop of war, 

 which destroyed a British sloop of 



