DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 171 



No. 44. 1819, September 17: Extract from Letter from Mr. Rush 

 (at London} to the Secretary of State. 



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Lord Castlereagh came to town on the 15th instant, and granted 

 me an interview yesterday on the business of the West Indian trade. 



Holding in his hands the proposals I had submitted, his Lordship 

 premised that he thought it would perhaps be best for him to answer 

 them in the same general way that the British articles, submitted 

 through my predecessor in 18i7, had been answered; that is, not in 

 any formal manner, but merely by a word of conversation with me. 

 I said that I was sure that the form of the answer would make no 

 difference; its transmission to my Government, in whatever mode his 

 Lordship might be pleased to convey it to me, would doubtless effect 

 every substantial purpose. 



In the answer there was no hesitation. Our proposals, he said, 

 were not of a nature to form the basis of any agreement between the 

 two countries. They would effect an entire subversion of the British 

 colonial system ; from this system they were not prepared to depart. 

 Their colonies were, in many respects, burdensome, and even liable 

 to involve the country in wars. Garrisons, and other establishments, 

 were constantly maintained in them, at a heavy charge. In return, 

 it was just that they should be encumbered with regulations, the op- 

 eration of which might help to meet, in part, the expenses which 

 they created. The great principle of these regulations was known to 

 be the reservation of an exclusive right to the benefit of all their 

 trade a principle, of which the free ports Acts had, it was true, pro- 

 duced some relaxation ; but it had never been the intention of this 

 Government to do anything more than offer to us a participation in 

 these Acts. Some modifications of them would have been acquiesced 

 in, suggested by local causes, and an anxious desire that our two 

 countries might come to an understanding on this part of their inter- 

 course. But to break down the system was no part of their plan. 

 Our proposals, therefore, could not be accepted. Such were his 

 remarks. 



I observed, that to break down the system was not our aim. All 

 that we desired was, that the trade, as far as it was gone into at all, 

 should be open to the vessels of both nations upon precisely equal 

 terms. If the system fell by such an arrangement, it was an incident, 

 and only showed how difficult it seemed to render its long continu- 

 ance consistent with a proper measure of commercial justice to- 

 wards us. 



So broad and unequivocal was his Lordship's refusal, that it 

 seemed almost superfluous to ask him to be more particular; yet, 

 perceiving in me a wish to be made acquainted rather more specially 

 with the objections, he said that he would not scruple to mention 

 them without, however, entering into details, for which he was not 

 prepared, and which had been amply unfolded on both sides during 

 the negotiation this time twelvemonth. The objections were three- 

 fold. First, we asked an enumeration, by name, of all the ports in the 

 West Indies that we desired should be open to our vessels; secondly, 

 that the trade between the United States and the British colonies on 

 the continent of America, and with Bermuda, should be confined 

 within the same limits as that between the United States and the 



