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Indiana University Studies 
August, stated that he could give no explicit information 
whether, or how far, the British Government would be able 
to accede to the American claims. He explained that any 
change in their former system would, to some degree, depend 
upon the probable condition not only of their own but of other 
colonies, and as they were yet to learn the real situation of St. 
Domingo as well as some other important colonies, they must 
wait a little longer before they could form a safe opinion upon 
this important subject. King intimated that any considerable 
delay in the decision of this point would operate in the same 
way as a decision in favor of the old system, and stated that 
he feared the American Government would think itself obliged 
to meet the disadvantages to which its navigation was liable 
under the former system, by regulations which would impose 
the like disadvantages upon the British navigation.®® To these 
remarks Lord Hawkesbury made no distinct reply, and the 
matter dragged wearily along until in January, 1803, almost 
a year after their first conversation, the British minister sug= 
gested that King submit a formal note upon the subject for 
the consideration of the cabinet.®^ This was immediately done 
but with no results. Whether the matter was pushed aside 
by others of greater importance or whether its consideration 
was overtaken by the new outbreak of war in the spring 
of 1803 is a matter of conjecture. 
With the return of war in Europe, American shipping was 
for a time again given a comparatively clear held in the Brit- 
ish West Indies, tho this time its proportion of the trade was 
not quite so large as in the previous period of war. In 1804, 
British ship-owners became anxious to increase their trade 
in the West Indies, and called the attention of their govern- 
ment to the irregularities which were being permitted. In 
consequence of this, proclamations were issued late in that 
year in several of the British West Indies interdicting the neu- 
tral trade at a date six months later. At once there was ex- 
citement in the islands, the inhabitants being divided as to 
the probable effect of this interdiction. In Kingston, Jamaica, 
fifty merchants sent a memorial to the governor of the island 
assuring him that if the ports were definitely closed against 
the United States, they would obtain an abundance of Brit- 
ish Canadian provisions. On the other hand, this was denied 
Am. State Papers, For. Rel., II, 501, 502. 
II, 503. 
