between the hostile colonies and their parent states, cannot dissolve those ties of property, of private connection, of taste, opinion, and habit, which bind them to each other. The colonist still prefers those manufactures of his native country with which he has been usually supplied; and still wishes to lodge in her banks, or with her merchants, the disposable value of his produce. That the colonial proprietors resident in Europe, must desire to have their revenues remitted thither, as formerly, is still more obvious: and indeed such an adherence to the old course of things, is both with them and their absent brethren, in general, rather a matter of necessity than choice; for mortgagees, and other credi tors, in the mother country, are commonly enti tled to receive a large part of the annual returns of a West India plantation.

The consequence is, that into whatever new channels the commerce of the belligerent colonies may artificially be pushed by the war, it must always have a most powerful tendency to find its way from its former fountains to its former reservoirs. The colonial proprietor, if obliged to ship his goods in neutral bottoms, will still send them directly to his home in Europe, if he can; and if not, will make some neutral port a mere warehouse, or at most a market, from which the proceeds of the shipment, if not the

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goods themselves, may be remitted to himself, or his agents in the parent state.

Such has been the event in the case before us. But let us see more particularly how the grand objects of the enemy planter and merchant, have been, in this respect, accomplished.

When enabled by the royal instructions, to trade safely to and from neutral ports, they found various indirect means opened to them for the attainment of those ultimate ends, of which the best, and most generally adopted, were the two following:-They might either clear out for á neutral port, and, under cover of that pretended destination, make a direct voyage from the colony to the parent state; or they might really proceed to some neutral country, and from thence reexport the cargo, in the same or a different bottom, to whatever European market, whether Heutral or hostile, they preferred.

The first of these was the shortest, and most convenient method; the other the most secure. The former was chiefly adopted by the Dutch, on their homeward voyages; because a pretended destination for Prussian, Swedish, or Danish ports in the North Sea, or the Baltic, was a plausible mask, even in the closest approximation the ship might make to the Dutch coast, and to the moment of her slipping into port: but the latter method, was commonly preferred by the Spaniards

and French, in bringing home their colonial produce; because no neutral destination could be pretended, that would credibly consist with the geographical position and course of a ship coming directly from the West Indies, if met with near the end of her voyage, in the latitude of their principal ports.

The American flag, in particular, was a cover that could scarcely ever be adapted to the former method of eluding our hostilities; while it was found peculiarly convenient in the other. Such is the position of the United States, and such the effect of the trade winds, that European vessels, homeward-bound from the West Indies, can touch at their ports with very little inconvenience or delay; and the same is the case, though in a less degree, in regard to vessels coming from the remotest parts of South America or the East Indies. The passage from the Gulph of Mexico, especially, runs so close along the North American shore, that ships bound from the Havannah, from Vera Cruz, and other great Spanish ports bordering on that gulph, to Europe, can touch at certain ports in the United States with scarcely any deviation. On an outward voyage to the East and West Indies, indeed, the proper course is more to the southward, than will well consist with touching in North America; yet the devia

tion for that purpose is not a very formidable inconvenience. Prior to the independency of that country, it was not unusual for our own outwardbound West Indiamen to call there, for the purpose of filling up their vacant room with lumber or provisions.

But this new neutral country, though so hap pily placed as an entrepôt, is obviously no place for a fictitious destination, on any voyage between the colonies and Europe; because, as it lies midway between them, the pretext would be worn out long before its end was accomplished.

From these causes it has naturally happened, that the protection given by the American flag, to the intercourse between our European enemies and their colonies, since the instruction of January, 1794, has chiefly been in the way of a double voyage, in which America has been the half-way house, or central point of communication. The fabrics and commodities of France, Spain, and Holland, have been brought under American colours to ports in the United States; and from thence re-exported, under the same flag, for the supply of the hostile colonies. Again, the produce of those colonies has been brought, in a like manner, to the American ports, and from thence re-shipped to Europe.

The royal instruction of 1798, however, opened

to the enemy a new method of eluding capture under the American flag, and enabled it to per form that service for him, in a more compendious manner. The ports of this kingdom, were now made legitimate places of destination, to neutrals coming with cargoes of produce directly from the hostile colonies.

Since it was found necessary or prudent, to allow European neutrals to carry on this trade directly to their own countries, it was perhaps, deemed a palliation of the evils likely to follow, and even some compensation for them in the way of commercial advantage, to obtain for ourselves a share of those rich imports, which were now likely to be poured more abundantly than ever, through our own very costly courtesy, into the neutral ports of Europe. We had submitted to a most dangerous mutilation of our belligerent rights, to gratify the rapacity of other nations; and we felt, perhaps, like a poor seaman, mentioned by Goldsmith, who, in a famine at sea, being obliged to spare a certain part of his body to feed his hungry companions, reasonably claimed a right to have the first steak for himself. Or, per haps, the motive was a desire more effectually to conciliate America. If so, we were most ungratefully requited; but in the other case, the error flowed from a very copious source of our