224 
Cherbourg the following night; and 
in the belief that the pending ne- 
gociation would have allowed of 
his entering the place in safety, 
having many passengers, much in- 
commoded and extremely ill on 
board, her captain entered the port. 
On presenting himself at the custom 
house, his declaration was refused, 
himself cited before an inferior 
court at Cherbourg, and all the rig- 
our of the above mentioned law 
decreed, by which his ship was 
seized, his cargo confiscated, and 
himself adjudged to six months 
imprisonment! Before we proceed 
to state the farther circumstances 
attending this case, some obvious 
questions present themselves. Was 
not this instance of hostile conduct 
of sufficient notoriety and conse- 
quence, deeply to affect the negocia- 
tion at Amiens? Was it not alone 
sufficient to engage the English go- 
vernmentto demand satisfaction for, 
er at least the repeal of, a law unjust 
in its principle, arbitrary in its exe- 
cution, originating in tyranny, and 
certainly inconsistent with the du- 
ties of good neighbourhood sub- 
sisting between countries so situ- 
ated as France and England must 
bein time of Peace? Was it not 
sufficiently alarming to have turned 
the thoughts of ministers towards 
the necessity of some stipulations 
for commercial arrangement? But 
no, the treaty goes on, is conclu- 
ded, and the property and com- 
merce of British subjects left ex- 
posed to the capricious tyranny 
and narrow policy of a despot 
without a single protecting condi- 
tion! The consequence was as 
might have been foreseen; so early 
* Custgm honse.. 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1804. 
as the 20th. of May 1802, not twa 
months after the signing the defini+ 
tive treaty; a dispatch from Lord 
Hawkesbury the minister for fo- 
reign affairs, to Mr. Merry, the 
English minister at Paris, requires 
oi him the most detailed and accus 
rate statement of the ‘ rigorous 
restrictions” and. * striet prohibi- 
tions” which were universally re- 
ported to be attached to British 
vessels entering the ports of France, 
and to the admission of British 
commodities and manufactures in- 
to that country. On the 15th of 
June following Mr. Merry presents 
an able statement to M. Talley- 
rand, the French minister, respect 
ing the ‘* Fame Packet,” Captain 
Gruchy, (the case abovemention- 
ed) detained at Cherbourg, in 
which he urges “ that Mr. Jack 
son, his predecessor at Paris, had 
urged repeated representations on 
the same subject in the month of 
January preceding: the hardship 
of extending the execution of a law 
made in the fury of war, toa case 
so peculiarly distressful as the pre- 
sent, at a time when hostilities had 
ceased: that the vessel was bound 
to an English port in Jersey with 
provisions and other merchandize 
for the use of the island; that she 
was forced into Cherbourg by stress- 
of weather; that the Douane* in 
deciding on this law would in case- 
of confiscation be entitled to half 
the value, and that therefore there 
might be reason to doubt the equi- 
ty of the decision; and he concludes 
by stating that there remained no 
hope to the proprietors. of the ship 
and. cargo, save in the interposi- 
tion of the government, which they 
begged 
