Benns: British West India Carrying-Trade 177 
in council in the event of a repeal of those acts of the Ameri- 
can Congress which had given occasion to it. The objections 
which had been urged at that time,®^ it was admitted, 
were no longer applicable to McLane’s overture, because the 
American Congress had now provided by an act for the re- 
establishment of the American intercourse upon certain terms 
and conditions. The British Government, in this case, knew 
what the American Government had done, and had only to de- 
cide for itself whether it was prepared to adopt a correspond- 
ing measure for the same object.®^ 
The British Government, however, insisted upon certain 
definite interpretations of a few points in the American act 
of May, 1830, before it would commit itself. In the first place, 
it stated, it must be understood that American vessels would 
be admitted into British colonies only from the United States. 
They could not enter from any other foreign country. In the 
second place, American vessels would be allowed to import into 
the British colonies only produce of the United States. Goods 
might not be imported into the United States from foreign 
countries and then re-exported to the British colonies in Amer- 
ican vessels. In the third place, vessels from the British 
colonies in North America must be placed on the same terms 
as ships coming from British colonies in the West Indies. The 
American act was silent upon this point. Finally, in spite of 
the provision in the American act that ‘The commercial inter- 
course of the United States with all other parts of the British 
dominions or possessions shall be left on a footing not less 
favorable to the United States than it now is’’, the British 
Government must be understood to reserve the right, which 
it also conceded to the United States, “to adopt, from time 
to time, such commercial regulations as either state may deem 
to be expedient for its own interests, consistently with the 
obligations of existing treaties”. Great Britain had at that 
time under consideration the expediency of introducing some 
modifications into the schedule of duties attached to the act 
of Parliament of 1825 with a view more effectually to support 
the interests of the British North American colonies. The 
British Government intended to provide the commercial in- 
terests of those colonies such protection by discriminating 
See above, p, 153. 
Senate Docs., 21 Cong., 2 Sess., I, No. 20, p. 50. 
6“ /bid., 51, 52. 
12—23811 
