Benns: British West India Carrying-Trade 119 
3. That the vessels of the United States should be allowed 
to trade between British colonies and any foreign country with 
which British vessels were allowed to trade/^^ 
Early in July, 1826, Gallatin sailed for Liverpool with these 
instructions which offered every indication that he would at 
length succeed in arranging this long debated question of the 
colonial trade, for the terms which he was authorized to accept 
were those which had been earlier advanced by the British 
proposals of 1824, and later embodied in the British act of 
July 5, 1825. Before his arrival at the Court of London, how- 
ever, the door of negotiation was slammed in his face by the 
British Government, which issued an order in council on July 
27, interdicting trade in American vessels with all British colo- 
nies with the exception of British North America, the order to 
take effect regarding the various colonies on successive dates 
from December 1, 1826, to May 1, 1827.^-® 
In reviewing the events described in this chapter, one can- 
not but be impressed with the unreasonable attitude adopted 
by the United States Government, or at least by the Admin- 
istration under the direction of John Quincy Adams. This 
is emphasized upon at least three occasions: (1) In 1822, 
the British Government had been driven, by American legis- 
lation, to open the trade with the British West Indies and 
North American colonies to American shipping on better terms 
than it had ever been legally open to it before. The United 
States, however, refused to concede reciprocal conditions to 
British vessels in American ports, giving as its reason the 
unheard-of claim that its ships should be admitted into Brit- 
ish colonies on the same terms as British ships from British 
possessions. (2) Again in 1824, when Great Britain signi- 
fied her willingness to settle the colonial trade question defi- 
nitely by convention, agreeing to every claim advanced by the 
American Government except that of admitting American ves- 
sels into colonial ports on identical terms with those of British 
vessels from British territories, the United States Govern- 
ment refused to surrender this claim and thus caused the ne- 
gotiation to fail. (3) Finally, in 1825, when the British Gov- 
ernment passed its new colonial regulations, ambiguous tho 
they were and discriminative against the United States, the 
American Government, having already delayed negotiating for 
^-Ubid., VI, 248. 
VI, 333-335. 
