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 are 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of France on the 28th day of April, 1811, by which the decrees of Berlin and Milan are declared to be definitively no longer in force in regard to American vessels.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 day 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 the 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 of May last, for a breach of the aforesaid orders in council alone, and which shall not have been actually 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 part of the captors as shall have been justly incurred.

the

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 April, 1812.

His royal highness 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 honorable the lords commissioners of his majesty's treasury, his majesty's principal secretaries of state, 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. JAMES BULLER.

Sir,

Lord Castlereagh to Mr. Russell.

Foreign Office, June 23, 1812. I am commanded by the prince regent to transmit to you for your information, the enclosed 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 January, 1807, and of the 26th of April, 1809, so far as may regard American vessels and their cargoes, being American property, from the 1st August next.

I have the honour to be, &c.

CASTLEREAGH.

Lord Castlereagh to Mr. Russell.

Sir, Foreign Office, June 23, 1812. In communicating to your government the order in council of this date, revoking (under certain conditions therein specified) those of January 7th, 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 the 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 2 o'clock to-morrow; and beg to apprize you that one of his majesty's vessels will sail for America with the dispatches of the government in the course of the present week. I have the honour to be, &c. CASTLEREAGH.

My lord,

Mr. Russell to Lord Castlereagh.

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, inclosing 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 American 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, &c.

Sir,

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 inclosed 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 on 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 the obligations of strict neutrality only, the conduct and character of the government of the United States furnish security against any question arising on that subject.

I have the honour to be, &c.

JONA. RUSSELL.

Lord Castlereagh to Mr. Russell.

Foreign Office, June 29, 1812. Lord Castlereagh has the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Mr. Russell's communication of the 26th instant.

That no mistake may prevail upon the explanation given in conversation by lord Castlereagh to Mr. Russell, on the two points referred to in Mr. Russell's letter, lord Castlereagh begs leave to re-state to Mr. Russell, with respect to the blockade of May, 1806, that, in point of fact, this particular blockade has been discontinued for a length of time; the general retaliatory blockade of the enemy's ports, established under the orders in council, of November, 1807, having rendered the enforcement of it by his majesty's ships of war no longer necessary; and that his majesty's government have no intention of recurring to this or to any other blockades of the enemy's ports, founded upon the ordinary and accustomed principles of maritime law, which

VOL. I.

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were in force previous to the order in council, without a new notice to neutral powers in the usual forms.

With respect to the provision of the order of the 23d instant, which refers to the admission of British ships of war into the harbours and waters of the United States, lord Castlereagh informs Mr. Russell, that this claim is made in consequence of his majesty's ships being now excluded, whilst those of the enemy are admitted. It is the partial admission of one of the belligerents of which Great Britain feels herself entitled to complain, as a preference in favour of the enemy, incompatible with the obligations of strict neutrality. Were the exclusion general, the British government would consider such a measure, on the part of America, as matter of discussion between the two states, but not as an act of partiality of which they had in the first instance a right to complain.

Lord Castlereagh avails himself of this opportunity to renew to Mr. Russell the assurances of his high consideration.

Mr. Russell to Lord Castlereagh.

18, Bentinck street, 1st July, 1812. Mr. Russell has the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the note of lord Castlereagh, dated the 29th ultimo, containing explanations relative to the two points referred to in Mr. Russell's note of the 26th of that month, and will take the earliest opportunity of communicating it to his government.

Mr. Russell begs leave to avail himself of this occasion to repeat to lord Castlereagh the assurances of his high conside

ration.

Mr. Erving to the Secretary of State, inclosing a correspondence with the Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Erving to Mr.

No. 16.

Monroe, Secretary of State, Sir, Copenhagen, April 12th, 1812. My last dispatch upon general business was No. 12. I therein mentioned the case of the "Jane Maria," which had been cut out of the port of Swinemunde by a French privateer. Subsequent to the date of that dispatch the captain arrived, but in the intermediate time a Frenchman had been put on board as a guard, and this became an obstacle to her departure. My correspondence with Mr. de Rosenkrantz on this affair is herewith submitted, viz. No. 1, December 10th; No. 2, January 11th; No. 3, January 15th; No. 4, January 15th; No. 5, January 16th, of the inclosures. I understand that one of the crew of the "Jane Maria" has appeared before a notary, and