Benns: British West India Carrying-Trade 89 
from the colonial ports.® As a result, the situation was that, 
by the British act, American vessels and cargoes were admit- 
ted to the British colonial ports on the same terms as British 
vessels with similar cargoes from the United States; but, by 
the President's proclamation, British vessels entering Ameri- 
can ports from the British colonial ports were subject to a 
tonnage duty ninety-four cents per ton higher than American 
vessels from the same ports, and a discriminating duty on 
their cargoes of 10 per cent more than that levied on similar 
cargoes in American vessels. 
Altho most of the American newspapers were content 
merely to publish the President’s proclamation without com- 
ment, there was occasionally an editor who pointed out that 
the American Government did not appear to be extending a 
true reciprocity to British ships. One Northern editor, in the 
heart of the American shipping district, wrote: 
It is understood that American vessels are admitted into the ports 
of the British West Indies, paying the same duties and fees which are 
exacted from British vessels; and we have offered to receive their ves- 
sels frorn the West Indies upon “terms of perfect reciprocity’’ — yet we 
observe with surprise that an additional duty of 10% is required on goods 
imported in British vessels; and instead of six cents per ton, for tonnage 
and light money, paid by our own vessels, they are required to pay 100 
cents.® 
A Norfolk editor took the same view: 
Most of our readers understand from the British Acts of Parliament, 
and the Proclamation of the President, that the intercourse between the 
United States and the British Colonies is placed upon a reciprocal foot- 
ing to the vessels of both nations. The Proclamation, however, does not 
exempt a British vessel coming from one of her colonies to the United 
States, from the charge of foreign tonnage.'^ 
If some American editors were of the opinion that Presi- 
dent Monroe’s proclamation failed to extend equal reciprocity 
to British ships, certainly it was but natural that the British 
minister in Washington should take this view. Soon after the 
publication of the Treasury Department circular, Stratford 
Canning entered two general complaints against the American 
regulations : first, that British vessels were liable to a tonnage 
duty of ninety-four cents per ton higher than that exacted 
from American vessels, and a 10 per cent discriminating duty 
® Published in Niles’ Register, XXIII, 87. 
^Boston Daily Advertiser quoted in Portsmouth Journal, Oct. 5, 1822. 
Norfolk Herald quoted in Phenix Gazette, Oct. 12, 1822. 
