^ET. 30.] THE ORDERS IN COUNCIL. 7 



leon, possessed neither colonies nor slave-trading ves- 

 sels, and were therefore guiltless of all slave traffic. 



It can be readily understood that this insane theory 

 engendered in Stephen such a hatred of Napoleon, that 

 he directed the whole force of his mind to devise some 

 means of counteracting his attempts to injure the com- 

 merce of this country. Highly applauding the Whig 

 Order of January 1807, as soon as his friend Mr Per- 

 ceval became minister, he readily obtained his assent 

 to a still more complete system of retaliation. With 

 this view he framed the famous Order of November 

 1807, which brought our mercantile conflict, not with 

 France only, but unhappily with America, to a crisis. 

 He preluded his Order by a tract deservedly celebrated, 

 and most justly admired, entitled ' War in Disguise, 

 or the Frauds of the Neutral Flags/ It is impossible to 

 speak too highly of this work, or to deny its signal 

 success in making the nation for a time thoroughly 

 believe in the justice and efficacy of his Orders in 

 Council. This is not the time or place to discuss the 

 merits or defects of this tract of Stephen's, or to refute 

 the arguments or expose the fallacies of the scheme 

 that was supposed to be all-powerful in defeating not 

 only the Berlin but the Milan Decree of Napoleon; * 

 suffice it to say that the Orders, coupled with the 

 system of licences issued to permit certain vessels to 

 pass, notwithstanding the Orders in Council, followed 

 by the American Embargo and Non-importation Acts, 

 which produced a suspension of all commerce with the 

 United States, brought destruction upon British com- 

 merce, and caused the manufacturers of London, Hull, 



* This Decree was issued at Milan on the 17th December 1807, and 

 was intended to enforce more rigorously the Berlin Decree* 



