COMMERCIAL AGREEMENT OF 1830. 143 



ported to, or exported from, either Country, from or to any Foreign 

 place, in its own Vessels, may be so imported or exported in the 

 Vessels of the other Country, on the payment of the same Duties. 

 Should the terms " most favoured Nation " be understood by Great 

 Britain in the sense I have referred to, she would entitle herself, in 

 case of a literal compliance on our part with the terms of the Act of 

 1825, to all those privileges for her European Navigation and Com- 

 merce, without reciprocating them to The United States- -a privilege 

 she would, it is hoped, be too just to desire, and which, certainly, 

 The United States could not for a moment think of granting. The 

 force of these objections, and the necessity of preliminary explana- 

 tions upon this head proceeding from the British Government, was 

 virtually admitted by Lord Dudley, in his reply to Mr. Gallatin's 

 Notes or the 4th of June and 17th of August, 1827 ; but he considered 

 them as answered by the statement of Mr. Gallatin, that the Presi- 

 dent was willing to recommend certain specific measures to Congress, 

 as a fulfilment of the conditions of the Act of 1825, and the President 

 would have adopted them himself if he had been clothed with au- 

 thority to that effect. 



The simple and sufficient reply to this view of the matter is, that 

 those measures were proposed by The United States, not as a strict 

 compliance with the conditions required, but as all that they could 

 offer, and with an accompanying declaration that they fell short of 

 what the Act of 1825 required, and would still leave our Commerce 

 with the Colonies dependent upon the future dispensation of the 

 British Government. The validity of this opinion Lord Dudley did 

 not attempt to controvert. 



If it is then true that either further preliminary legislative Acts, 

 of a prospective stipulation on the part of Great Britain, be neces- 

 sary, a previous Order in Council should be preferred : First, because 

 it would obviate the two principal objections stated by Lord Dudley 

 to her binding herself for the future. Those objections were, that the 

 future course of Great Britain must, necessarily, in part, depend upon 

 the details of such Act as Congress might pass ; and that the very fact 

 of making such a stipulation would be a departure from a ground 

 which their Government had taken upon full deliberation, that they 

 would not suffer themselves to be drawn into any negotiation upon 

 the subject of the Colonial Trade, but claimed for themselves the 

 right to regulate it by their own separate and independent legislative 

 Acts. The mode proposed would manifestly obviate the first objec- 

 tion, and avoid the other. Secondly, because such an act on the part 

 of Great Britain, after the past transaction of the two Governments 

 on this subject, could not fail to remove all asperities from the minds 

 of our People, and contribute more than an adjustment in any other 

 form to produce that spirit of mutual kindness between the 2 Coun- 

 tries which it is the interest of both to cherish, and which the Presi- 

 dent is earnestly solicitous to maintain. 



Assuming that the step can be taken by Great Britain (as it as- 

 suredly can) without disparagement, the consideration stated would, 

 it is believed, have a persuasive influence on her conduct. In issuing 

 such an Order in Council, the British Government would only be act- 

 ing upon the same policy which it has in part already pursued in 

 relation to the Bahama Islands and the Island of Anguilla. Great 

 Britain revoked her Order in Council of July, 1827, as to those 



