against the declaration, which Mr. Russell has deemed it expedient to bring forward in his note of the 25th.

The undersigned avails himself of this opportunity of renewing to Mr. Russell the assurances of his great consideration.

(Signed)

Foreign Office, 3d May, 1812.

CASTLEREAGH.

British Order in Council of the 23d June, 1812, with the correspondence relating thereto.

[These papers have heretofore been laid before congress, but they are again submitted, as they have a relation to the report now made.]

Sir,

· Mr. Russell to Mr. Monroe.

London, 26th June, 1812. I have the honour to transmit to you, enclosed, an order in council issued by this government, on the 23d of this month, and copies of two notes from lord Castlereagh of the same date, accompanying the communication of it to me, and also a copy of my note to him, of this day, in reply.

I can but regret that in this document any reservation has been made of a power of restoring the orders of the 7th of January, 1807, and of the 26th of April, 1809, to their full effect, whenever it shall be judged expedient so to do, as such reservation manifests an intention to maintain the principle on which they were founded, and in which I conceive the United States can never acquiesce.

Had this reservation not been made, the revocation of those orders would, perhaps, accompanied as it is with the verbal explanations of lord Castlereagh, alluded to in my note to him, have been considered to be as precise and complete as could reasonably, under every view of the subject, have been expected.

The reservation itself, although ungracious in appearance, will, I trust, prove harmless in effect, and, I presume, this government will be long deterred by its experience, from carrying into practice a principle to which it appears to be determined so ostentatiously to adhere in the abstract.

I am, with great consideration and respect, sir, your faithful and obedient servant,

JONA. RUSSELL.

(Copy.)

Sir,

Foreign Office, June 23d, 1812. I am commanded by the prince regent to transmit to you for your information the inclosed printed copy of an order in council, which his royal highness, acting in the name and on the behalf of his majesty, was this day pleased to issue, for the revocation (on the conditions therein specified) of the orders in council of the 7th of January, 1807, and of the 26th of April, 1809, so far as may regard American vessels and their cargoes, being American property, from the first of August next. I have the honour to be, with great consideration, sir, your most obedient humble servant,

(Signed)

(Copy) Sir,

CASTLEREAGH.

Lord Castlereagh to Mr. Russell.

Foreign Office, June 23d, 1812. In communicating to your government the order in council of this date, revoking (under certain conditions therein specified) those of January 7th, 1807, and of April 26th, 1809, I am to request that you will at the same time acquaint them, that the prince regent's ministers have taken the earliest opportunity, after their resumption of the government, to advise his royal highness to the adoption of a measure grounded upon the document communicated by you to this office on the 20th ultimo; and his royal highness hopes that this proceeding on the part of the British government, may accelerate a good understanding on all points of difference between the two states.

I shall be happy to have the honour of seeing you at the foreign office at two o'clock to-morrow, and beg to apprize you that one of his majesty's vessels will sail for America with the despatches of the government, in the course of the present week.

I have the honour to be, with great consideration, sir, your most obedient humble servant,

(Signed)

CASTLEREAGH.

At the Court, at Carlton House, the twenty-third of June, one thousand eight hundred and twelve.

PRESENT,

His royal highness the prince regent in council. Whereas his royal highness the prince regent was pleased to declare, in the name and on the behalf of his majesty, on the

21st day of April, 1812, "That if at any time hereafter the Berlin and Milan decrees shall, by some authentic act of the French government, publicly promulgated, be absolutely and unconditionally repealed, then and from thenceforth the order in council of the 7th of January, 1807, and the order in council of the 26th of April, 1809, shall, without any further order, be, and the same is hereby declared from thenceforth to be wholly and absolutely revoked:"

And whereas the charge des affaires of the United States of America, resident at this court, did, on the 20th day of May last, transmit to lord viscount Castlereagh, one of his majesty's principal secretaries of state, a copy of a certain instrument, then for the first time communicated to this court, purporting to be a decree passed by the government of France, on the 28th day of April, 1811, by which the decrees of Berlin and Milan are declared to be definitively no longer in force in regard to American vessels.

And whereas his royal highness the prince regent, although he cannot consider the tenor of the said instrument as satisfying the conditions set forth in the said order of the 21st of April last, upon which the said orders were to cease and determine, is nevertheless disposed on his part to take such measures as may tend to re-establish the intercourse between neutral and belligerent nations, upon its accustomed principles-his royal highness, the prince regent, in the name and on the behalf of his majesty, is therefore pleased, by and with the advice of his majesty's privy council, to order and declare, and it is hereby ordered and declared, that the order in council bearing date the 7th day of January, 1807, and the order in council bearing date the 26th day of April, 1809, be revoked, so far as may regard American vessels and their cargoes, being American property, from the 1st day of August next.

But whereas, by certain acts of government of the United States of America, all British armed vessels are excluded from the harbours and waters of the said United States, the armed vessels of France being permitted to enter therein, and the commercial intercourse between Great Britain and the said United States is interdicted, the commercial intercourse between France and the said United States having been restored; his royal highness the prince regent is pleased hereby further to declare, in the name and on the behalf of his majesty, that if the government of the said United States shall not, as soon as may be, after this order shall have been duly notified by his majesty's minister in America to the said government, revoke, or cause to be revoked, the said acts, this

present order shall in that case, after due notice signified by his majesty's minister in America to the said government,

be thenceforth null and of no effect.

It is further ordered and declared, that all American vessels and their cargoes being American property, that shall have been captured subsequently to the 20th day of May last, for a breach of the aforesaid orders in council alone, and which shall not have actually been condemned before the date of this order; and that all ships and cargoes as aforesaid, that shall henceforth be captured under the said orders, prior to the first day of August next, shall not be proceeded against to condemnation till further orders, but shall, in the event of this order not becoming null and of no effect, in the case aforesaid, be forthwith liberated and restored, subject to such reasonable expenses on the part of the captors as shall have been justly incurred.

Provided, that nothing in this order contained, respecting the revocation of the orders herein mentioned, shall be taken to revive wholly or in part the orders in council of the 11th of November, 1807, or any other order not herein mentioned, or to deprive parties of any legal remedy to which they may be entitled under the order in council of the 21st of April, 1812.

His royal highness the prince regent is hereby pleased further to declare, in the name and on the behalf of his majesty, that nothing in this present order contained, shall be understood to preclude his royal highness the prince regent, if circumstances shall so require, from restoring, after reasonable notice, the orders of the 7th of January, 1807, and 26th of April, 1809, or any part thereof, to their full effect, or from taking such other measures of retaliation against the enemy, as may appear to his royal highness to be just and necessary. And the right honourable the lords commissioners of his majesty's treasury, his majesty's principal secretaries of the lords commissioners of the admiralty, and the judge of the high court of admiralty, and the judges of the courts. of vice-admiralty, are to take the necessary measures herein as to them may respectively appertain.

(Copy.)

My Lord,

state,

18. Bentinck-Street, June 26, 1812. I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the two notes addressed to me by your lordship on the 23d of this month enclosing an order in council issued that day by his royal highness the prince regent, acting in the name and on the behalf of his Britannic majesty, for the revocation (on the conditions therein specified) of the orders in council of the 7th of January, 1807,

and of the 26th of April, 1809, so far as may regard Ameri-. can vessels and their cargoes, being American property, from the first of August next.

In communicating this document to my government, I shall, with much satisfaction, accompany it with the hopes which you state to be entertained by his royal highness the prince regent, that it may accelerate a good understanding on all points of difference between the two states.

I am the more encouraged to believe that these hopes will not be disappointed, from the assurance which your lordship was pleased to give me, in the conversation of this morning, that, in the opinion of your lordship, the blockade of the 16th of May, 1806, had been merged in the orders in council, now revoked and extinguished with them; and that no condition contained in the order of the 23d instant, is to be interpreted to restrain the government of the United States from the exercise of its right to exclude British armed vessels from the harbours and waters of the United States, whenever there shall be special and sufficient cause for so doing, or whenever such exclusion shall, from a general policy, be extended to the armed vessels of the enemies of Great Britain; this assurance I am happy to consider as evidence of a conciliatory spirit, which will afford on every other point of difference an explanation equally frank and satisfactory.

I am, my lord, with great consideration, your lordship's most obedient servant,

Sir,

(Signed)

JONA. RUSSELL.

Mr. Russell to the Secretary of State.

London, 2d July, 1812. I avail myself of the opportunity afforded by the British packet, to transmit to you a copy of a note from lord Castlereagh, of the 29th ultimo, which I trust will put at rest the blockade of 1806.

I acknowledged the receipt of this note, as you will observe by the enclosed copy of my reply, without a comment.

I did not think it useful to enter into a discussion at this moment, concerning the legality of that blockade, which, as no new doctrine appears to be assumed, is made to depend upon the fact, the application of an adequate force.

In like manner I have forborne to notice his lordship's observations concerning the exclusion from our ports of British vessels of war. As such exclusion is required to accord with 3 D

VOL. I.