152 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC., 



riage of Goods from The United States to West Indian Ports, in 

 Ships having arrived from other Ports, of the British Dominions, 

 appear fully to warrant the expression before quoted of Mr. McLane, 

 " that the Act would confer on British Vessels all those privileges, 

 as well in the circuitous as in the direct voyage, which Great Britain 

 has at any time demanded." But, with regard to the Continental 

 Colonies, there is merely a provision for " admitting to entry in the 

 Ports of The United States, British Vessels, or their Cargoes, from 

 the Islands, Provinces, or Colonies of Great Britain, on or near the 

 North American Continent, and north or east of The United States." 

 It must, indeed, be presumed that Vessels from these Colonies are in- 

 tended to be admitted upon the same terms in all respects, and to be 

 entitled to the same privileges, as British Ships from any other Brit- 

 ish Colony. 



The Act of Congress requires, as a further condition, that when the 

 intercourse with the West India Colonies shall be opened by Great 

 Britain, " the Commercial Intercourse of The United States with all 

 other Parts of the British Dominions or Possessions, shall be left on 

 a footing not less favourable to The United States than it now is." 



Although it may be most truly stated that there exists at this time 

 no intention to make any alteration in the Commercial Policy of 

 Great Britain, and equally that there is no disposition on the part of 

 His Majesty's Government to restrict in any measure the Commercial 

 Relations between this Country and The United States ; yet the posi- 

 tive condition, to maintain unchanged, or upon any particular footing 

 of favour, every part of our system of trade, affecting our intercourse 

 with America, could not with propriety be made the subject of any 

 specific Engagement connected with the renewal of the Colonial In- 

 tercourse. Whether that Intercourse be renewed or not, it ought to 

 remain at all times as free as it now is, both to the Government of 

 Great Britain and to that of The United States, to adopt from time 

 to time such Commercial Regulations as either State may deem to be 

 expedient for its own interests, consistently with the obligations of 

 existing Treaties. 



It is due to the candour with which the Communications of Mr. 

 McLane have been made on this subject, that the Undersigned should 

 be thus explicit in noticing the passage in the Bill to which he has 

 now adverted. 



Mr. McLane, in his Note of the 12th ultimo, has described and 

 explained in the material diminution which has been made, in the 

 Duties payable in The United States on the importation of certain 

 Articles of Colonial Produce. This measure has been viewed by 

 His Majesty's Government with sincere satisfaction, as indicating a 

 disposition to cultivate a Commercial Intercourse with His Majesty's 

 Colonies, upon a footing of greater freedom and reciprocal advantage 

 than has hitherto existed. But the Undersigned must frankly state, 

 that, in the general consideration of the question now to be deter- 

 mined, no weight ought to be assigned to the reduction of those 

 Duties, as forming any part of the grounds on which the re-establish- 

 ment of the Intercourse may be acceded to. Those changes are part 

 of the general scheme of taxation which the Government of America 

 may at all times impose or modify, with the same freedom as that 

 which Great Britain may exercise, in the regulation of any part of 



