688 



B R I T A I N. 



Britain. 



The court 

 of Portugal 

 leaves Lis- 

 bon for 

 EraziJ. 



Proceed- 

 ings of 

 parliament. 



Berlin de- 

 cree. 



British Or. 

 <lers in 

 council. 



, on the faith of his sovereign, that the British 

 squadron before the Tagus should be employed to 

 protect his retreat from Lisbon, and his voyage to 

 the Brazils. 



On the morning of November 29th, the Portuguese 

 fleet set sail from the Tagus, with the Prince of Bra- 

 zil and the whole of the royal family of Brnganza on 

 board, together \v.th many of his faithful counsellors 

 and adherents, and other persons attached to his for- 

 tunes. The fleet consisted of eight sail of the line, 

 with frigates, bri^s, and Brazil ships, in all amount- 

 ing to 36 sail. While they passed through the Bri- 

 tish squadron, our ships fired a salute of 21 guns, 

 which was returned with an equal number. The 

 friendly meeting of the two fleets, at a juncture so 

 critical and important, was a eight exceedingly inter- 

 esting and affecting. Four English ships of the line 

 were sent by the British admiral to accompany the 

 r.iyal family to Brazil. After Portugal had fallen 

 under the dominion of France, the valuable island of 

 Madeira was committed to the protection of British 

 troops. 



A new parliament assembled on the 22d of June 

 1807. Their debates during the summer were com- 

 paratively uninteresting ; but when the second ses- 

 sion was opened, the late expedition to Copenhagen, 

 and our relations with America, furnished momentous 

 subjects of discussion. Of these, the subject of the 

 orders in council might be regarded as the most 

 practically important ; for, whatever might be said 

 of the Copenhagen expedition, the deed was done; 

 and the human misery it had occasioned, could not 

 be repaired, eren had the advice suggested by Lord 

 Sidmouth been adopted, for fixing a time for the re- 

 storation of the capture a proposal which was 

 triumphantly rejected by ministers. But the mea- 

 sures with regard to America were still open to re- 

 cal. 



In November 1806, Bonaparte had issued at Ber- 

 lin his famous decree, in which he declared the Bri- 

 tish islands to be in a state of blockade. He also 

 shut the ports of all the countries under his authori- 

 ty against all vessels which had last cleared from 

 Great Britain, and subjected to confiscation all car- 

 goes of British produce or manufacture. In aid of 

 this regulation, he afterwards declared that all neu- 

 tral vessels coming into any port of his dominion, 

 should bring with them what was called a certificate 

 of origin ; being an assurance under the hand of the 

 French consul at the port of shipment, that the car- 

 go was not of British produce or manufacture, and 

 that all vessels which should be met at sea without 

 such a certificate, should be liable to capture. This 

 Berlin decree, which, from the impotence of France 

 to enforce it in its most material points, ought to 

 have been regarded as an insulting bravado, was very 

 properly resented on the part of the Grenville mini- 

 stry, by a mild decree, which interdicted the coast- 

 ing trade of the enemy. 



Ten months elapsed without any other measure of 

 commercial hostility from cither cabinet, till No- 

 vember 1807 (a year after the publication of the 

 Berlin decree) appeared our new orders in council, 

 by the Portland ministry, containieg these two sub- 

 stantial propositions : First, That France, and all 

 its tributary states, should be held to be in a state 



of blockade ; and that all vessels should be seized 

 which attempted to trade from any neutral port to 

 those countries, or from them to any neutral port. 

 Secondly, That all vessels should be liable to sei/iirc, 

 which should have on board any such certifk: 

 origin as was required by the Berlin decree. Neutral 

 vessels intended for a French or hostile port, were 

 directed at all events to touch first at Great Britain, 

 from which, after paying certain duties, they may 

 in some cases be allowed to proceed ; and in all cases 

 they are pcrmuti-il, and nuk-ed enjoined, to come to 

 Great Britain when clearing out with a cargo from 

 any port of the enemy. 



America, from her sole c-.joyment of independence, 

 was deeply interested in the operation of these con- 

 tending decrees, which placed her trade between two 

 fires. But the interests of Britain were no less in 

 volved in this measure than those of America, aiid 

 her trade to that quarter of the world began to suffer 

 severely. The American merchants remonstrated 

 against the orders, and petitioned parliament to re- 

 scind them. Their cause was pleaded at the bar of 

 the house by an able lawyer, (Mr Brougham,) who 

 did ample justice to tiieir cause. The petitioners de- 

 clared, that the obvious tendency of the orders in 

 council was to annihilate our neutral commerce ; and 

 that it actually had reduced our America;: trade to 

 one third of its former extent. The preamble to the 

 orders in council had justified the measure, by declar- 

 ing that the decrees of Franee had exhibited an un- 

 precedented system of warfare, (for, independent of 

 such provocation, our right to exercise such hostility 

 towards neutrals, was not pleaded by the strongest 

 advocates of the orders). It had been ulso stated, in 

 the same preamble, that neutrals had acquiesced in 

 these decrees of France, and submitted to them as 

 part of the new system of war. It was proved, how- 

 ever, that the French decrees were not unprecedent- 

 ed. In 1739, in 175G, under the old government of 

 France, and at three subsequent periods since the 

 French revolution, decrees had been issued by the 

 enemy for capturing all vessels laden even in part 

 with British produce, and yet they had not been fol- 

 lowed by any such measure of retaliation on the part 

 of Britain. With regard to the Berlin decree, it was 

 not true that it had either been enforced by France, 

 or that America had acquiesced in it. General Arm- 

 strong, the American ambassador, so far from ac- 

 quiescing in the Berlin decree, had applied, to learn 

 whether it was intended to be enforced against Ame- 

 rican vessels : and it was answered by the French 

 government, that the blockading decree was not in- 

 tended to be enforced against the ships of that nation. 

 From distinct evidence laid before the House of Com- 

 mons, it was proved that neutral vessels had been 

 publicly and regularly chartered on voyages from 

 this country to the Continent of Europe after the 

 Berlin decree, in the same manner as before it ; that 

 the prices of articles of colonial produce and home 

 manufactures, continued the same in the continental 

 markets after the Berlin decree down to the orders 

 in council : that the greatest merchants in the neu 

 tral trade had never heard of a neutral vessel being 

 condemned in the hostile ports ; and that the rate of 

 insurance of such vessels had not been raised by the 

 Berlin decree, but only by the orders in council. 





I'rocec 



the ore 

 in cuui 



