own growth, produce, or manufacture, but also of such goods and merchandises, the growth, produce, or manufacture of any foreign nation, as a nation producing or manufacturing the same, would import in their vessels into Great Britain.

4. Should it ever be politic to exclude all foreign vessels from importing, or exporting, any species of goods, wares, or merchandises, by confining their importation or exportation to our own vessels; we are perfectly free to do so; with the exception, relative to the West India productions, referred to under the first proposition; thus, for example, we may prohibit the importation of all Asiatic goods, except in American bottoms.

That these articles of the treaty leave our navigation and commerce as free, and secure to us as extensive advantages as have before been procured by our commercial treaties with foreign nations, will be seen by the following comparison:

1. By the articles before us, the parties restrain themselves from imposing any other or higher duties on the vessels and cargoes of each other, than they impose on the vessels and cargoes of all other nations; and also from imposing a prohibition of the importation or exportation of any article to or from the territories of each other, which shall not extend to all other nations. By the 3d and 4th articles of our treaty with France, and by the 2d and 3d articles of our treaty with Prussia, it is stipulated, that the subjects and citizens of the respective parties, shall pay, in the ports, havens, and places of each other, no other or greater duties or imposts, of whatsoever nature they may be, than those which the nations most favored shall be obliged to pay: and moreover, that they shall enjoy all the rights, liberties, privileges, and exemptions in trade, navigation, and commerce, which the said nations do, or shall enjoy: and by the 2d article of the former, and the 26th article of the latter treaty, the parties agree mutually, not to grant any particular favor, in respect to navigation or commerce, which shall not immediately become common to the other party, who shall enjoy the same favor, if freely granted, or on allowing the same compensation, if the concession was conditional.

The stipulations in the three treaties are, on these points, equivalent.

The 2d and 3d articles of our treaty with Holland, and the 3d and 4th of our treaty with Sweden, likewise contain mutual stipulations, that the subjects and citizens of the several parties shall pay in the ports, havens, and places of their respective countries, no other or higher duties or imposts than those which the nations most favored shall pay; and that they shall enjoy all the rights, liberties, privileges, and exemptions in trade and navigation, which the said nations shall enjoy.

2. The articles before us, after stipulating that there shall be between our territories and the British dominions in Europe, a reciprocal and perfect liberty of commerce, declare, that the same shall be subject always to the laws of the respective countries. The introductory articles of our treaties with France, Holland, and Sweden, after asserting the intentions of the parties to take equality and reciprocity as their basis, likewise leave each party at liberty to form such regulations respecting commerce and navigation as it shall find convenient to itself-and the 2d and 3d articles of our treaty with Prussia, after stipulating the rights of the parties, respecting the duties and imposts, and the freedom of their navigation and trade, likewise require their submission to the laws and usages established in the two countries.

3. The articles before us, in their provisions relative to navigation, stipulate, as has been already observed, in common with our other treaties, that the ships of the parties shall not be subject to higher or other duties, than those paid by all other nations. They go farther, and agreee to vary this rule, so far as shall be necessary to equalize the tonnage duty imposed by the parties on the ships of each other. Our treaty with France is the only one in which we discover a similar stipulation.-France had a high alien tonnage duty on all foreign vessels transporting the merchandise of France from one port to another port in her dominions. We had a less alien tonnage duty on foreign ships employed in a similar trade: though not equally extensive, the case is parallel to that which exists between us and Great Britain. We have a high alien tonnage duty on all foreign vessels entering our ports; Great Britain has a less alien tonnage duty on foreign vessels entering her ports. In our treaty with France we reserve

a right to countervail the alien tonnage duty imposed by France; and in like manner, in our treaty with Great Britain, she reserves a right to countervail the alien tonnage duty imposed by us. The object, in both instances, has been to place the navigation of the parties on the footing of exact equality.

The preceding exposition of these articles, illustrated by the comparison of their provisions, with the analogous articles of our other treaties, would be sufficient to vindicate them against the objections to which they have been exposed.-It is, however, thought advisable to take notice of such of these objections as are likely to have any influence on the public opinion.—[This will be done in a subsequent number.]

NO. XXVIII.

CAMILLUS.

1795.

An extraordinary construction of the last clause of the fourteenth article has been assumed by the writer of Cato; his mistake in this instance has been the foundation of many of the errors with which that performance abounds. The article stipulates that there shall be a perfect and reciprocal liberty of navigation and commerce between our territories and those of Great Britain in Europe, subject always to the laws and statutes of the two countries, respectively. This navigation and commerce, says Cato, must be subject to, and defined and regulated by the laws and statutes of the two countries, which existed at the time of making the treaty, all future laws, that either party might be disposed to make, relative to the same, being excluded.

The reason assigned, in support of this interpretation, is, that the article would be nugatory, did not the laws and statutes alluded to, mean only those in existence at the making of the treaty; since future laws might impair or destroy what the article confers.

Nothing in the expressions themselves requires this interpre

tation.

The customary and established meaning of them in other treaties would lead to a rejection of it.-The object of the clause is not the limitation of the legislative power of the parties, but the subjection of their mutual navigation and commerce to their respective laws.-This end is most fully attained by understanding the parties to mean their future as well as their existing laws. Besides, the interpretation must be such as will not destroy the use and meaning of other parts of the treaty. If this construction is just, some of the most important stipulations of the fifteenth article would really become useless. For instance, if the laws, existing at the time of making the treaty, are alone to prevail, the articles of commerce, admitted or excluded by those laws, must remain entitled to admission or liable to exclusion. Why then say in the fifteenth article "that no prohibition shall be imposed on the exportation or importation of any articles to or from the territories of the parties respectively, which shall not extend to all other nations?" If a prohibition, applying to all foreign nations, may be imposed (as the clause allows), this would be a new or subsequent law, varying the law existing at the time of making the treaty, and consequently defeating the construction in question.

The reason adduced by Cato to support his construction is equally defective with his interpretation itself. The fourteenth article is in general terms, and similar, as has been shown, to the introductory articles of other treaties; so far from the last clause thereof being capable of destroying the preceding stipulations, it is the peculiar province of the next article to ascertain the points which the parties mutually agree to except from their legislative power. In all cases not thus excepted, the navigation and commerce of the parties is subject to their existing or future laws.

It is not necessary to remark on the several objections which have proceeded from the opinion that the treaty restrains us from imposing prohibitory duties and exclusions: they are but subdivisions of the error that has been just combated.

Another objection which has been stated by several writers,

and much labored by Cato, is, that under the right reserved to the British government to countervail an alien tonnage duty, by the imposition of an equivalent one on our vessels entering their ports, they would gain and we should lose.

Several methods are adopted to prove this opinion. The observation that we have a tonnage duty on our own vessels, and that Great Britain has none, is repeated by way of objection against this as well as against the proposed adjustment contained in the 12th article. The same reply already given might be sufficient in this place.

But [is it true] that British ships entering their own ports in Europe are wholly free from a tonnage duty? the contrary is the fact; since it is understood, that they pay a tonnage duty for the support of light-houses, and some other institutions, connected with their navigation, which [in all their ports*] exceeds the tonnage duty of six cents per ton, that we levy on the entry of our own vessels employed in foreign trade. But Great Britain (it is alleged) will not only impose in virtue of this reserved right, fifty cents per ton on our vessels entering her ports, but in every port except that of London, she will furthermore exact one shilling and ninepence sterling, or thirty-nine cents per ton, for light-money and Trinity-dues more than is paid by her own vessels; this, added to the difference before stated, would have, it is said, a very discouraging effect upon our navigation. Our tonnage duty is a tax not divided and appropriated, like the light-money, or Trinity-dues, in Great Britain, to specific, and particular objects—but when levied, goes into the treasury with the duty of impost, and stands appropriated to the various objects to which that duty is appropriated-among those objects is the support of light-houses-it is not the object to which the tax is applied that gives a denomination; whether it goes to support the civil list, or to pay annuities, or to maintain light-houses, or to support hospitals, it is equally a tonnage duty. A tonnage duty then of a certain amount, is now paid by American vessels entering the ports of Great Britain. This duty is not uniform, being less in London than in the other ports, and, in some in

* Unless London be an exception.