ten mariners. The false papers are to be sent to the minister of justice.

THE Canton, captain Henry Latham, according to the captain's declaration, was at Amsterdam the 13th August, 1808; this fact was attested by his crew. The French consul, in Holland, certified that this vessel was not at Amsterdam at that period of time. The desertion of some of the crew, and the want of the usual passport of the king of Holland, were considered as proofs that the vessel had been at Britain; she was accordingly confiscated, and a fine of 9000 francs imposed, which must be paid before the captain and six men of the crew are enlarged.

This vessel had taken brandies aboard, which, by a decision of the court, are given up to the proprietors at Charente, on the supposition that the fraud was not known at the time they were shipped.

MESSAGE

FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. JAN. 12, 1810.

I COMMUNICATE to the House of Representatives the report of the Secretary of State on the subject of their resolution of the 3d instant.

JAMES MADISON.

REPORT.

THE Secretary of State has the honour to report to the President, in conformity to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 3d instant, that no information has been received at the department of state relative to the blockade of the ports of the Baltick by France, and of the exclusion of neutral vessels by Russia, Sweden, and Denmark. As it is presumed, however, that the enclosed papers, the first a translation of an "Ukase" of the Rus

sian government, dated on the 14th of May, 1809, and the second, a translation furnished to this department on the 10th of January last, by the charge des affaires of Denmark, of such parts of the instructions given to the privateers of that country on the 14th September, 1807, as were supposed to be most interesting to neutrals, may have some connexion with the object of the resolution, they are respectfully submitted.

Department of State, Jan. 11, 1810.

R. SMITH.

IT is known to the whole world with what firmness Russia has long protected the neutral trade during the wars of the European powers. It is known with what courage she has defended the interests of the nations trading in peace from the flames of war. Following this invariable principle also, during the present rupture with England, she fully relied that illicit practices would not be admitted in the trade with nations in amity with us. But, as we have learned by experience, during the last year, that the enemy found means through the medium of neutral vessels of obtaining the produce he required, and of exchanging his own, to his aggrandizement, whereby we were lately necessitated to order two ships to be confiscated; for these causes, finding it indispensable to take measures for the prevention of various frauds and artifices, we command,

1st. That ships arriving in our ports shall prove the neutrality of the property, by the following documents, viz. Of the ship: by the pass, the ship's register, the muster-roll, and the log-book. Of the cargo: by the charter party, the bills of lading, the declaration certificates of origin; if all the cargo or part thereof belongs to the captain; and by the invoices, if the ship comes from America or India, or if she be destined for those countries. If any of these documents cannot be produced by the captain, such ship shall be sent out of port, without being permitted to unload.

2d. Ships loaded in part with goods which shall be proved to be the produce or manufacture of an enemy's country shall be detained. The goods shall be confiscated and sold by publick sale, for the benefit of the crown. If more

than half the cargo consists of such goods, then not only the cargo, but the ship also shall be confiscated.

3d. A pass granted by a neutral, friendly, or allied power, shall not protect a captain if it be discovered that he has acted in opposition thereto; nor if the ship bear a name in the pass different from that designated in the other documents, unless proofs of the change of the name, certified by some established authority of the place from whence the ship comes, compose part of the documents of the said ship, and be presented to the custom house. In such case, the captain is not to be criminated for the difference in the name of the ship.

4th. The pass shall not be considered as valid should it be discovered that the ship receiving such pass was not, when the pass was given, in a port of the power giving the

pass.

5th. If there be found on board of any ship a supercargo, a captain, or more than one third of the crew, subjects of an unfriendly power; or if the ship have not a muster-roll certified by the supreme authority of such neutral place as the ship comes from, such ship and cargo shall be confiscated, and the crew set at liberty.

6th. If it be discovered that the ship's pass presented by the captain, has been altered or forged, such ship and cargo shall be confiscated; the captain shall be prosecuted and proceeded with as directed by the laws regarding forgers of documents, and the crew set at liberty.

7th. If duplicate documents be discovered on board of a ship with different destinations, such ship and cargo shall be confiscated. If the captain endeavour to justify himself by asserting the total loss of his papers, and should not procure them, such ship and cargo shall be detained, and a reasonable time, considering the distance of the place, shall be granted for the producing of them, if the captain desires it on the contrary, should the captain be unable to wait, the ship, with the cargo, shall be immediately sent out of port. But should the captain, on the expiration of the time granted him, not produce the papers, the ship and cargo shall be confiscated.

8th. No enemies' built ships shall be acknowledged as neutral or friendly, unless there be among the documents of such ship,an act certified by some publick court, proving

that the sale or transfer was made before the declaration of war. In any other case, the ship and cargo shall be confiscated.

9th. If the proprietor or master of the ship, being born subjects of an unfriendly power, should have a pass from a neutral or friendly power, such pass shall not protect them until they prove that they became subjects of and settled in the territories of a neutral or friendly power before the declaration of the war; otherwise they shall be sent away with their ships, without being permitted to take return cargoes. COUNT ROMANZOFF.

St. Petersburgh, May 14, 1809.

TRANSLATION.

Regulations for Vessels commissioned as Privateers, dated
Rensburg, Sept. 14, 1807.

SECT. 1. Defines the qualifications for privateers.
2. Form of commission.

3. Regulates the security to be given by the owner. 4. It is the duty of every one thus lawfully commissioned, to take and bring in for adjudication, all ships and vessels belonging to the British crown or to British subjects, and he may also bring in for examination all such ships and vessels as may render themselves suspicious by a deviation from some of those in section 9, given definitions, and in ⚫ whose papers he finds a founded suspicion that they do not belong to subjects of friendly or neutral powers; and he may further bring in for examination all such ships and vessels as at the commencement of hostilities were British property, notwithstanding they may have been, by later purchase or contract, made over to subjects of other nations, except by regular papers, passports and sea letters, it satisfactorily appears that they have been in some friendly or neutral port after they had ceased to be British property.

5. Orders respect to be paid to the territory of neutral or friendly powers, and such territory is considered to extend to one sea league from the land.

6. As we recognise it to be a fundamental principle, never to be departed from, that a free ship makes the goods on board free also, so do we strictly forbid our cruisers commissioned as privateers, to detain any vessel belonging to friendly or neutral powers, be the cargo whose it will, provided the ship's papers are in proper order, and no part of the cargo contraband of war, bound to a port or place under the British dominion.

7. As free ships makes free the goods on board, so does enemy's ships make the cargo hostile, unless it clearly appears that they are the property of neutrals loaded before the commencement of the war, or before the war was known at the place at which it was taken on board, and before the papers of the vessel were expedited.

8. The papers which according to the 6th article ought to be on board in due form, are (a,) a sea pass; (b,) the proof of the carpenter as to the building of the vessel; (c,) a register and certificate of measurement; (d,) a muster roll; (e,) a clearance; (f,) a charter party or bills of lading; (g,) and for such vessels as have passed the sound, a clearance from Elsinore: every ship or vessel which has so passed and is found without such clearance, will be condemned as lawful prize to the captor.-Royal Plaiat dal. Copenhagen, 14th November, 1807.

9. As good prize will be considered, all vessels which belong to the crown of Great Britain, or to British subjects in whatever part of the world they reside. Further, shall, after due investigation, according to the particular circumstances of the case, be condemned as good prize:

(a) All vessels which shall be found at sea without sea pass; or, (b,) when the pass or other documents are found to be false; (c,) when they are found in a course different from that expressed in their pass, unless forced thereto by storms, bad weather, pursuit of an enemy, or other accidents or distress, which must be proved by the journal; (d,) when loaded wholly or in part with contraband of war, which on investigation shall be destined to a British port; (e,) when a vessel is detained or about to be detained by a privateer offers resistance; (f) such ships or vessels as shall approach a squadron blockading a Danish town, port or province, in order to trade with it or to carry it provisions.