acquiescence, as may be inferred from the final explanation of Mr. Champagny, namely that it was in the case of an attack on those provinces by Great Britain, and then for their defence only, that the march of American troops into them would not be disagreeable to the Emperor.

Congress closed their Session on the 25 ult. For a general view of their proceedings, I refer to the series of Newspapers heretofore and now forwarded, and to other prints which are added. Among their Acts of Chief importance is that which vests in the President an authority to suspend in whole or in part the Embargo laws.

The conditions on which the suspending authority is to be exercised will engage your particular attention. They appeal equally to the justice and the policy of the two great belligerent powers now emulating each other in violation of both. The President counts on your best endeavors to give to this appeal all the effect possible with the French Government. Mr. Pinkney will be doing the same with that of Great Britain. The relation in which a recall of its retaliating decrees by either power, will place the United States to the other is obvious; and ought to be a motive to the measure proportioned to the desire which has been manifested by each, to produce collisions between the U. States and its adversary. and which must be equally felt by each to avoid one with itself.

Should wiser Councils or increasing distresses induce Great Britain to revoke her impolite [impolitic?] orders against neutral commerce, and thereby prepare the way for a removal of the Embargo as it applies to her, France could not persist in the illegal part of her decrees, if she does not mean to force a contest with the United States. On the other hand should she set the example of revocation Great Britain would be obliged, either by following it, to restore to France the full benefit of neutral trade which she needs, or by persevering in her obnoxious orders after the pretext for them had ceased, to render collisions with the United States inevitable. In

every point of view therefore, it is so clearly the sound policy of France to rescind so much at least of her decrees as trespass on neutral rights, and particularly to be the first in taking the retrograde step, that it cannot be unreasonable to expect that it will be immediately taken.

The repeal of her decrees is the more to be expected, above all if Great Britain should repeal or be likely to repeal hers, as the plan of the original decree at Berlin did not extend to a violation of the freedom of the seas, and was restricted to a municipal operation nearly an entire year, notwithstanding the illegal British orders of Jany, 1807; and as a return of France to that restricted scope of her plan, would so immaterially diminish its operation against the British commerce, that operation being so completely in the power of France on land, and so little in her power on the high seas.

But altho' we cannot of right demand from France more than a repeal of so much of her decrees as violate the freedom of the seas, and a great point will be gained by a repeal of that part of them, yet as it may not have the effect of inducing a repeal of the whole illegal system of the British Government which may seek pretexts; or plead a necessity for counteracting the unprecedented and formidable mode of warfare practiced against her, it will be desirable that as little room as possible should be left for this remaining danger to the tranquil enjoyment of our commercial rights.

In whatever degree the French Government may be led to change its system, you will lose no time in transmitting the information to this Department and to Mr. Pinkney, and by hired conveyances, if necessary. A correspondent instruction is given to Mr. Pinkney.

It is of the greatest importance that you should receive from each other the earliest notice of any relaxations, as each Government is under a pledge to follow such an example by the other. And it is not of less importance that the President or Congress should be acquainted with the facts, that the proceedings here may be accommodated to them.

That you may know the grounds on which the British orders of Novr. have been arraigned by this Government, I inclose a copy of the answer to Mr. Erskine's note communicating them; a copy of the note being also inclosed.

The other documents communicated will put you in full possession of the relations of the U. States with Great Britain, as resulting from the issue of our general negotiations, and from that of the Mission of Mr. Rose.

The letter from the King of Westphalia to the President having passed thro' your hands, the answer is herewith inclosed to be forwarded by you.

I learn from the Treasury that no delay arises in settling your ordinary accounts, but from that in receiving the Bankers accounts connected with them. Mr. Gallatin tells me that the accounts under the Louisiana Convention have not yet been taken up, but will be in a few days.

This dispatch is forwarded by Mr. Baker, who takes his passage from Baltimore, in a vessel engaged as was the Osage which sailed from New York, for the special purpose of public and mercantile correspondences with Europe. She will proceed in the first instance to L'Orient where she will leave Mr. Baker, and thence proceed with dispatches for Mr. Pinkney to Falmouth, where she will remain a few days to receive communications from him. She will then return to L'Orient, in order to bring back Mr. Baker with your communications. I have the honor to be &c.

TO WILLIAM PINKNEY.

D. OF S. MSS. INSTR.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, July 18, 1808.

SIR,

Your communications by Lt. Lewis were safely delivered on the evening of the 8th inst.

As it had been calculated that the interval between the return of Mr. Rose and the departure of Lt. Lewis would give sufficient time to the British Government to decide on the

course required by the posture in which the affair of the Chesapeake was left, its silence to you on that subject, could not fail to excite the particular attention of the President; and the appearance is rendered the more unfavorable by the like silence, as we learn from Mr. Erskine, of the dispatches brought to him by the Packet which left England and arrived at New York at nearly the same times with the Osage. I have intimated to Mr. Erskine the impressions made by this reserve, without however, concealing our hope that the delay does not imply a final purpose of witholding reparation, and that the next communications from London will be of a different import. They must at least entertain the real views of the British Government on this interesting subject.

There was certainly no just ground for Mr. Canning to expect any particular communications from you on the arrival of the Osage; unless they should have grown out of such accounts from France as would second our demands of justice from Great Britain, particularly the revocation of her orders in Council. And in imparting to him what you did from that quarter, every proof of candor was given which the occasion admitted. If Mr. Canning was disappointed because he did not receive fresh complaints against the orders in Council, he ought to have recollected that you had sufficiently dwelt on their offensive features in the first instance; and that as he had chosen to make the formal communication of them to this Government thro' another channel, it was thro' that channel rather than thro' you that answers to it would be most regularly given. But it cannot be supposed that his disappointment was in the least produced by your reserve on this topic, as indeed is clearly shown by his disinclination to listen to your suggestions with regard to it. It must have proceeded as you seem to have understood from some expectation of proposals having for their basis or their object, arrangements adverse to the enemies of G. Britain, or favorable to herself; an expectation contrary, surely, to all reason and probability under the accumulated injustice which the

United States are suffering from British measures, and forming of itself, an additional insult to their just and honorable feelings. A very little reflection ought to have taught the British Cabinet, that no nation which either respects itself or consults the rule of prudence, will ever purchase redress from one of its aggressors by gratifying his animosity against another aggressor; and least of all when a suspicion is authorized that redress is insidiously withheld lest the example should be followed. The communications and instructions forwarded by Mr. Purviance who was a passenger in the St. Michael will enable you to bring the British Government to a fair issue on the subject of its orders. If it has nothing more in view than it is willing to avow, it cannot refuse to concur in an arrangement rescinding on her part the orders in Council, and on ours, the Embargo. If France should concur in a like arrangement, the state of things will be restored which is the alleged object of the orders. If France does not concur the orders will be better enforced by the continuance of the Embargo against her than they are by the British fleet and cruizers, and in the mean time all the benefits of our trade will be thrown into the lap of Great Britain. It will be difficult therefore to conceive any motive in Great Britain to reject the offer which you will have made, other than the hope of inducing on the part of France, a perseverance in her irritating policy towards the United States, and on the part of the latter, hostile resentments against it.

If the British Government should have elected the more wise and more worthy course of meeting the overture of the President in the spirit which dictated it, it is to be hoped that measures will have been taken in concert with you, and thro' its Minister here, for hastening as much as possible the renewal of the intercourse which the orders and the Embargo have suspended; and thereby smoothing the way for other salutary adjustments.

It appears that the British Government not satisfied with the general blockade by her orders of Nov. 11th, has super

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