COMMERCIAL AGREEMENT OF 1830. 135 



The passage of this Act was followed by the exercise of the author- 

 ity given to the King to impose countervailing duties; and they 

 were accordingly imposed to an amount equal to ours, by an Order in 

 Council of the 21st of July, 1823, upon all American Vessels and 

 their Cargoes arriving in the Colonial Ports. Under these reciprocal 

 impositions, the trade between The United States and the Colonies 

 was carried on from that time, until it was suppressed by both Gov- 

 ernments, in the manner hereinafter stated. 



The negotiation was resumed by Mr. Rush in January, 1824. In its 

 course, propositions for regulating the trade were submitted by him, 

 which received the assent of the British Plenipotentiaries, with the 

 exception of that prohibiting the imposition of protecting duties in 

 the Colonies, to which their dissent was expressed in the strongest 

 terms. 



Mr. Rush's Instructions precluded him from settling the matter 

 upon any other terms, and the Negotiation was suspended in the 

 month of June following. 



On the 5th of July, 1825, an Act of Parliament was passed, allow- 

 ing the trade with the British Colonies in North America and the West 

 Indies to all foreign Nations, upon conditions which will be hereafter 

 referred to. It limited the privileges thus granted to Foreign Ves- 

 sels to the Ships of those Countries, not having Colonies, which 

 should place the commerce and navigation of Great Britain, and her 

 Possessions abroad, upon the footing of the most favoured Nation, 

 unless the King, by Order in Council, should in any case deem it ex- 

 pedient to grant the whole or any of such privileges to the Ships of 

 any Foreign Country, although the required condition was not in all 

 respects complied with by such Country. 



Mr. King was sent to England in the summer of 1825, but without 

 instructions upon this point. His continued indisposition induced 

 him to return in the summer of 1826, and during that period no 

 step was taken by either Government. 



In the winter of 1825-6, an attempt was made in Congress to meet 

 the Act of Parliament of July, 1825, by correspondent legislation; 

 but it failed; and although the Trade might, and most probably 

 would, have been saved, if the Act then introduced had become a Law, 

 it is nevertheless true, as has been stated, that it would not have been 

 a strict compliance with the British Act, if it had passed. 



In the summer of 1826, Mr. Gallatin was sent to England with 

 instructions, which authorized him to conclude an arrangement of 

 the Colonial Question upon terms substantially the same with those 

 which were offered by the British Plenipotentiaries to Mr. Rush in 

 1824; but his authority was confined to an adjustment by Treaty 

 stipulation. 



On the 27th of July, 1826, the King, by Order in Council, founded 

 upon the Act of Parliament of July, 1825, declared that the United 

 States had not complied with the conditions of the Act, and therefore 

 directed that the Trade and intercourse between the United States arid 

 the greater part of the British Colonial Ports should cease from and 

 after the first day of December then following. 



Mr. Gallatin arrived in England a few days after the publication 

 of those Orders in Council. The determination of the British Gov- 

 ernment to decline all further negotiation upon the subject was 



