NOTE ON TRADE RELATIONS. 131 



portation: provided, nevertheless, that this regulation shall not ex- 

 tend to the vessels of any foreign nation which has not adopted, and 

 which shall not adopt, a similar regulation." 



1818. The United States adopted another statute (18th April, 

 c. 70), which provided as follows (British Case, App., p. 784): 



" that from and after the thirtieth of September next, the ports of 

 the United States shall be and remain closed against every vessel 

 owned wholly or in part by a subject or subjects of His Britannic 

 Majesty, coming or arriving from any port or place in a colony or 

 territory of His Britannic Majesty that is or shall be, by the ordi- 

 nary laws of navigation and trade, closed against vessels owned by 

 citizens of the United States; and such vessel, that, in the course of 

 the vo} T age, shall have touched at, or cleared out from, any port or 

 place in a colony or territory of Great Britain, which shall or may 

 be, by the ordinary laws of navigation and trade aforesaid open to 

 vessels owned by citizens of the United States, shall, nevertheless, 

 be deemed to have come from the port or place in the colony or ter- 

 ritory of Great Britain, closed as aforesaid, against vessels owned by 

 citizens of the United States, from which such vessel cleared out and 

 sailed before touching at, and clearing out from, an intermediate and 

 open port or place as aforesaid; and every such vessel, so excluded 

 from the ports of the United States, that shall enter, or attempt to 

 enter, the same, in violation of this Act, shall, with her tackle, ap- 

 parel, and furniture, together with her cargo on board such vessel, be 

 forfeited to the United States." 



Referring to this statute, Mr. John Quincy Adams (United States 

 Secretary of State), in a letter (21 May 1818) to Mr. Rush (United 

 States Ambassador at London), said (British Case, App. 5 p. 81) : 



" It meets the British prohibitive colonial system by direct and 

 countervailing prohibition, to commence from and alter the 30th 

 of September next. The vote upon its passage in the Senate, where 

 it originated, was all but unanimous, and in the House of Repre- 

 sentatives the opposition to it amounted only to fifteen or sixteen 

 votes. 



"Although no formal communication of this law to the British 

 Government will be necessary, it may naturally be expected that it 

 will be noticed in your occasional conversations with Lord 

 151 Castlereagh. He will doubtless remember, and may be re- 

 minded of, the repeated efforts made by this Government to 

 render it unnecessary by an amicable arrangement, which should 

 place on an equitable footing of reciprocity the intercourse between 

 the United States and the British colonies; he will remember the re- 

 peated warnings given, that to this result it must come, unless some 

 relaxation of the British prohibitions should take place; and his 

 own equally repeated admissions, that the exercise of the prohibitive 

 right on the part of the United States would be altogether just, and 

 would give no dissatisfaction whatever to Great Britain. 



" You are, nevertheless, authorised to assure him that the Presi- 

 dent assented to this measure with great reluctance, because, however 

 just in itself it may be, its tendencies cannot but be of an irritating 

 character to the interests which it will immediately affect, and because 



