tion of selling the provisions which constitute a part of the cargo, under the pretext that they are perishable. The clear and unequivocal manner in which the revocation of the Berlin and Milan decrees were announced by your excellency, forbid me for a moment to suppose, that the violent proceedings of this man will be sanctioned by his majesty the emperor and king, or that the least delay will be allowed in placing the property thus arrested at the free disposition of the rightful owner, whose confidence alone in the good faith with which it becomes nations to perform their engagements, has brought him to the place where he is so inhospitably treated. I am persuaded that your excellency will not, on this occasion, attempt to remind me of the conditions on which the revocation of those decrees were predicated. These conditions were in the alternative, and the performance of either is sufficient to render absolute and perpetual that revocation. It is of no importance that the British orders in council have not been withdrawn, if the United States, in due time, perform the condition which depends alone on them. And what is this condition? why, to execute an act of congress against the English, which to be thus executed, requires the previous revocation of these very decrees. The letter of your excellency, of the 5th of August, appears to have been written with a fuil knowledge of this requisition of the law, and manifestly with the intention to comply with it, in order that it might be competent for the president of the United States to exercise the contingent power which had been given to him. It will not be pretended, that the decrees have in fact been revoked; but that the delay of the United States in performing the condition presented to them authorizes their revival. The case of the New Orleans Packet is the first which has occurred since the 1st of November, to which the Berlin or Milan decrees could be applied, and if they be applied to this case, it will be difficult for France to show one solitary instance of their having been practically revoked. As to delay on the part of the United States, there has been none. No official information of the letter of your excellency of the 5th of August, left France for the United States, owing to circumstances which it was not in the power of general Armstrong to control, until the 29th of September, and to this moment I have not learnt that such official information has been there received. I might indeed have learnt it, and been able now to have communicated to your excellency, the measures on which the president has decided in consequence of it, had not the frigate the Essex, despatched by him, been put under quarantine on her arrival at L'Orient, for the want of a bill of health, and the messenger thereby detained since the 4th of this month. I will not undertake to decide whether a bill of health ought, in courtesy, to be exacted of a frigate of a friendly power, coming in the winter season from a place not known to have been lately afflicted with any malignant disease; but surely the delay which this ex action occasions, cannot be imputed to a want of due diligence on the part of the American government. It is from this view of the subject that I am thoroughly convinced, that the application of the Berlin or Milan decree, by the director of the customs at Bordeaux, to the New Orleans Packet, will not be approved by his majesty, but that prompt and efficient measures will be taken to correct a procedure, which, if persisted in, might produce a state of things which it is the obvious interest of both nations to avoid. I pray your excellency to be assured of my most distinguished consideration, &c. (Signed) JONATHAN RUSSELL. Copy of a letter from Chr. Meyer to Mr. Smith, Secretary of State. United States Consulate, Bordeaux, December 6, 1810. SIR, I have the honour to inclose a copy of Mr. Cathalan's letter to me, received this morning, concerning the recapture of the schooner Grace Ann Greene, of New York, Daniel Greene, master, who brought her into the port of Marseilles, having two British officers and seven sailors on board, and they only being six men, amongst which number two boys. The brig New Orleans Packet, of New York, with a cargo of provisions and three hundred bags of cocoa on board, bound to the Mediterranean for a market, went to Gibraltar, where, after lying some time, came to this port, where he has been sequestered. The schooner Friendship, of and from Baltimore, capt. Snow, with a cargo of coffee and campeache, is arrived five days ago in this river. Whatever the issue may be of these two vessels, I shall have the honour to inform you of. I remain, very respectfully, sir, your most obedient humble servant, (Signed) To the Secretary of State of the U. States of America, Washington. CHR. MEYER. Copy of a letter from Chr. Meyer to Mr. Smith, Secretary of State. United States Consulate, Bordeaux, December 14, 1810. SIR, Annexed is triplicate of my respects to you of the 6th instant, the brig Osmin and the ship Commodore Rogers, by which the original and duplicate went, having not got to sea yet. The brig New Orleans Packet, of New York, captain Harris, mentioned in my former letter, has since been seized by the collector, and her cargo has been put in the imperial customhouse. The schooner Friendship, of and from Baltimore, captain Snow, has been sequestered. I have the honour, &c. &c. (Signed) CHR. MEYER. SIR, Department of State, December 31, 1810. Having just received from general Armstrong the inclosed communication, (marked D) I hasten to transmit it to you, as a supplement to the report which I had the honour of laying before you on the 28th of this month. With the highest respect and consideration, I have the honour to be, sir, your most obedient servant, The President of the United States. R. SMITH. (D.) SIR, Washington, December 29, 1810. In giving the few papers I brought with me another examination, I have found the inclosed extract from the minutes of the French council of commerce of the 12th of September last. Having a connexion with the subject of my letter of yesterday, I have the honour of transmitting it to you, and at the same time of renewing the assurances of my very high consideration. (Signed) JOHN ARMSTRONG. Hon. Robert Smith, Secretary of State. (TRANSLATION.) Extracts from the minutes of the office of the secretary of state. At the palace of St. Cloud, September 12, 1810. Napoleon, emperor of the French, king of Italy, protector of the confederation of the Rhine, and mediator of the Swiss confederation: Upon the report of our minister of the interior: After having heard our council of the administration of the finances, and in conformity with our decree of the 5th of August, 1810. We have decreed and do decree as follows: ARTICLE I. The duties of entry upon the articles of merchandise hereafter mentioned, are regulated in the following manner: STATEMENT OF EXPORTS The Produce and Manufacture of the United States, commencing the 1st of October, 1809, and ending the 30th of September, 1810. (TRANSLATION.) FRENCH EMPIRE. Paris, December 26, 1810. Copy of a letter from his excellency the grand judge, minister of justice, to the counsellor of state, president of the council of prizes. Paris, Dec. 25, 1810. MR. PRESIDENT, The minister of foreign relations, by order of his majesty, the emperor and king, addressed on the 5th of August last, to the plenipotentiary of the United States of America, a note containing the following words: "I am authorized to declare to you that the decrees of Berlin and Milan are revoked, and that after the first of November they will cease to have effect; it being well understood, that in consequence of this declaration, the English will revoke their orders in council, and renounce the new principles of blockade which they wished to establish, or that the United States, in conformity to the act you have just communicated, will cause their rights to be respected by the English." In consequence of the communication of this note, the president of the United States issued, on the 2d of November, a proclamation to announce the revocation of the decrees of Berlin and Milan, and declared that in consequence thereof, all the restrictions imposed by the act of the first of May must cease with respect to France and her dependencies: on the same day the treasury department addressed a circular to all the collectors of the customs of the United States, which enjoins them to admit into the ports and waters of the United States armed French vessels; prescribes to them to apply, after the 2d of February next, to English vessels of every description, and to productions arising from the soil and industry, or the commerce of England and her dependencies, the law which prohibits all commercial relations, if at that period the revocation of the English orders in council, and of all the acts violating the neutrality of the United States, should not be announced by the treasury department. In consequence of this engagement entered into by the government of the United States, to cause their rights to be respected, his majesty orders, that all the causes that may be pending in the council of prizes of captures of American vessels, made after the first of November, and those that may in future be brought before it, shall not be judged according to the principles of the decrees of Berlin and Milan, but that they shall remain suspended; the vessels captured or seized to remain only in a state of sequestration, and the rights of the proprietors being reserved for them until the 2d of February next, the period at which the United States having fulfilled the engagement to cause their rights to be respected, the said captures shall be declared null by the council, and the American vessels restored, together with their cargoes, to their proprie |