Benns: British West India Carrying-Trade 125 
of America''.^^ The London Globe, altho disclaiming “any hos- 
tile or jealous feelings towards America’", failed to see why 
the East India Company’s possessions should not also be closed 
against American ships as soon as the existing treaties per- 
mitted.^® The London Morning Herald of a later date, 
looking back over Canning’s administration, believed : 
The shutting out of the United States and then laying the founda- 
tion of a reciprocal trade between British North America and our West 
India colonies, was almost the only act of Mr. Canning’s policy deserving 
of praise. It was indeed, a masterpiece of statesmanship ... We 
do hope and trust that our government will not suffer themselves to be 
talked into a repeal of this most salutary measure; — a measure cal- 
culated to uphold that which must ever be of primary importance to 
this country — ships, colonies and commerce.'^ 
With the publication of the British order in council in the 
United States late in September, 1826, the British West India 
trade question once more became a live topic of discussion. 
For four years, or since the British Government had opened 
the West India colonial ports to American shipping in 1822, 
very little real interest had been displayed in the question. 
That the ports were open and that American shipping had 
gained practically all of the trade was known, but the legis- 
lative and diplomatic action of the two governments was not 
so well known, or at least not so well understood. Even the 
British acts of 1825, with their implied threat to exclude 
American shipping, had failed to arouse public interest in 
America. It was believed that the whole question would be 
solved in due time thru the channels of diplomacy. The Presi- 
dent in his message had intimated so; the committee reports 
in Congress had held out the same hope. What the public in 
general did not realize was that no diplomatic action had been 
taken by the American Government regarding the question 
for nearly two years following the failure of negotiations in 
1824. The publication of the British order was the first real 
intimation which the great majority of Americans had that 
anything was seriously wrong in regard to the British West 
India trade question. There was some justification for the 
assertion of the British editor of the New York Albion that 
“the American people have been misled from the beginning to 
the end of this affair’’.^^ 
XXXI, 78. 
XXXI, 229. 
London Morning Herald, Nov. 10, 1829, quoted in Niles' Register, XXXVI, 276. 
Quoted in National Journal, Oct. 5, 1826. 
