Mr. Smith to Mr. Erskine. Department of State, April 18, 1809. SIR,-The note which I had the honour of receiving from you this day, I lost no time in laying before the President, who being sincerely desirous of a satisfactory adjustment of the differences unhappily existing between Great Britain and the United States, has authorized me to assure you, that he will meet with a disposition correspondent with that of his Britannick majesty, the determination of his majesty to send to the United States a special envoy, invested with full powers to conclude a treaty on all the points of the relations between the two countries. I am further authorized to assure you, that in case his Britannick majesty should, in the mean time, withdraw his orders in council of January and November, 1807, so far as respects the United States, the President will not fail to issue a proclamation by virtue of the authority and for the purposes specified in the eleventh section of the statute, commonly called the non-intercourse act. I have the honour to be, &c. R. SMITH. Mr. Erskine to Mr. Smith. Washington, April 19, 1809. SIR,-In consequence of the acceptance, by the President, as stated in your letter dated the 18th inst. of the proposals made by me on the part of his majesty, in my letter of the same day, for the renewal of the intercourse between the respective countries, I am authorized to declare that his majesty's orders in council of January and November, 1807, will have been withdrawn, as respects the United States, on the 10th day of June next. I have the honour to be, &c. Hon. Robert Smith, &c. &c. &c. D. M. ERSKINE. Mr. Smith to Mr. Erskine. Department of State, April 19, 1809. SIR,-Having laid before the President your note of this day, containing an assurance, that his Britannick majesty will, on the tenth day of June next, have withdrawn his orders in council of January and November, 1807, so far as respects the United States, I have the honour of informing you that the President will accordingly, and in pursuance of the eleventh section of the statute, commonİy called the non-intercourse act, issue a proclamation, so that the trade of the United States with Great Britain may on the same day be renewed, in the manner provided in the said section. I have the honour to be, &c. R. SMITH. By the President of the United States of America. WHEREAS it is provided by the 11th section of the act of Congress, entitled "An act to interdict the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France, and their dependencies, and for other purposes; that "in case either France or Great Britain shall so revoke or modify her edicts, as that they shall cease to violate the neutral commerce of the United States;" the President is authorized to declare the same by proclamation, after which the trade suspended by the said act, and by an act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbours of the United States, and the several acts supplementary thereto, may be renewed with the nation so doing. And whereas the honourable David Montague Erskine, his Britannick majesty's envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, has by the order and in the name of his sovereign declared to this government, that the British orders in council of Ja nuary and November, 1807, will have been withdrawn, as respects the United States, on the 10th day of June next. Now THEREFORE, I, JAMES MADISON, President of the United States, do hereby proclaim, that the orders in council aforesaid, will have been withdrawn on the said tenth day of June next; after which day the trade of the United States with Great Britain, as suspended by the act of Congress above mentioned, and an act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbours of the United States, and the several acts supplementary thereto, may be renewed. Given under my hand and the seal of the United States, at Washington, the nineteenth day of April, in the [L. S.] year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and nine, and of the independence of the United States, the thirty-third. JAMES MADISON. By the President. R. SMITH, Secretary of State. MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE SENATE. JUNE 15, 1809. In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 13th instant, I transmit extracts from letters from Mr. Pinkney to the Secretary of State, accompanied by letters and communications to him, from the British secretary of state for the foreign department; all of which have been received here since the last session of Congress. To these documents, are added a communication just made by Mr. Erskine to the Secretary of State, and his answer. JAMES MADISON. Mr. Canning to Mr. Pinkney. Foreign Office, December 24, 1808. SIR,-In my official note of the 23d September I stated to you the probability that some alterations might be made in the orders in council, with a view to adapt their opera tion more exactly to the altered state of Europe, and to combine all practicable relief to neutrals with a more severe pressure upon the enemy. As this statement was however only incidental, and as 1 at the same time disclaimed any intention of taking advantage of such proposed alterations in the discussions then pending between us-seeing that if made, they would not be founded on the admission of the principles for which you were contending, it was perhaps not necessary that I should trouble you with any further communication upon this subject. But the order, of which I have the honour to enclose a copy, having been passed by his majesty in council on Wednesday last, I am desirous, previous to its actual publication, of explaining to you the grounds on which the more extended alterations, which were in contemplation, have been suspended. It was intended to relax in a certain degree the regulations of the orders in council, with respect to such of the powers in hostility with his majesty as were not, or should not place themselves in a state of hostility with Spain; but at the same time that this relaxation was extended to other powers, to prohibit absolutely by strict, rigorous, and unmitigated blockade, all intercourse whatever with France. The adoption by these powers, who were to have been the objects of such relaxations, of the views and projects of France with respect to Spain, does away all assignable ground of distinction between France and those powers; and that part, therefore, of the intended alterations does not take place. The alterations contained in the enclosed orders in council stand upon a separate ground, and, as I have more than once understood from you that the part of the orders in council which this order goes to mitigate is that which was felt most sorely in the United States, I have great pleasure in being authorized to communicate it to you. I have the honour to be, &c. William Pinkney, Esq. GEORGE CANNING. "His majesty, in virtue of the powers reserved to him, by two certain acts passed in the forty-eighth year of his majesty's reign, the one entitled "An act for granting to his majesty, until the end of the next session of parliament, duties of customs on the goods, wares and merchandises therein enumerated, in furtherance of the provisions of certain orders in council;" the other entitled "An act for granting to his majesty, until the end of the next session of parliament, certain duties on the exportation from Ireland, of goods, wares and merchandise therein enumerated," is pleased, by and with the advice of his privy council to order, and it is hereby ordered, that the operation of the aforesaid acts be suspended as to any duties on exportation, granted by the said acts, so far as relates to articles, being the growth, produce, or manufacture of any country, for the time being, in amity with his majesty, and from the ports of which the British flag is not excluded, imported direct from such country into any port or place of the united kingdom, either in British ships or in ships of the country of which such articles are the growth, produce or manufacture. "And his majesty is further pleased, with the advice aforesaid, to order, and it is hereby ordered, that the said duties on exportation be suspended, as to all goods, wares, or merchandise, which have been, or may be condemned as prize until further orders shall be made therein." Mr. Pinkney to Mr. Canning. Great Cumberland Place, December 28, 1808. SIR, I have had the honour to receive your letter of the 24th instant, communicating an order passed by his majesty in council on Wednesday last, and have transmitted copies of these papers to my government. It is perfectly true, as the concluding paragraph of your letter supposes me to believe, that the United States have viewed with great sensibility the pretension of this government (which as a pretension, the present order plainly re-asserts, without much, if at all, modifying its practical effect) to levy imposts upon their commerce outward and inward, which the orders in council of the last year were to constrain to pass through British ports. But it is equally true, that my government has constantly protested against the entire system, with which that pretension was connected, and has in consequence |