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dispute between the two countries. He has also received, with much satisfaction, the explanation which Mr McLane has afforded him verbally, in the last conference which the undersigned had the honor of holding with him, upon those passages in which the wording of the bill appears obscure, and in which it seems at least doubtful whether the practical construction of it would fully correspond with the intentions of the American Government, as expressed by Mr McLane. But it is nevertheless necessary, in order to remove all possibility of future misapprehension upon so important a subject, that he should recapitulate the points upon which those doubts have arisen, and distinctly state the sense in which the undersigned considers Mr McLane as concurring with him in the interpretation of them.

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The first point in which a question might arise is, in that passage of the bill wherein it is declared, as one of the conditions on which the restrictions now imposed by the United States may be removed, that the vessels of the United States, and their cargoes, on entering the ports of the British possessions, as aforesaid, (viz. in the West Indies, on the continent of America, the Bahama islands, the Caicos, and the Bermuda or Somer islands,) shall not be subject to other or higher duties of tonnage or impost, or charges of any other description, than would be imposed on British vessels, or their cargoes, arriving in the said colonial possessions from the United States of America. It is not quite clear whether the concluding words, from the

United States of America,' are meant to apply to the vessels of the United States, and their cargoes, in the first part of the paragraph, as well as to those of Great Britain or her colonies, in the latter part.

It can scarcely, indeed, have been intended that this stipulation should extend to American vessels coming with cargoes from any other places than the United States, because it is well known that, under the navigation laws of Great Britain, no foreign_vessel could bring a cargo to any British colonial port from any other coun

try than its own.

The next condition expressed in the act is, 'that the vessels of the United States may import into the said colonial possessions from the United States, any article or articles which could be imported in a British vessel into the said possessions from the United States.'

In this passage, it is not made sufficiently clear that the articles to be imported on equal terms by British or American vessels from the United States, must be the produce of the United States. The undersigned, however, cannot but suppose that such a limitation must have been contemplated, because the clause of the navigation act already adverted to, whereby an American vessel would be precluded from bringing any article not the produce of America to a British colonial port, is not only a subject of universal notoriety, but the same provision is distinctly made in the act of Parliament of 1825, which has been so often referred to in the discussions on this subject.

It was also necessary that the undersigned should ask for some explanation of that section of the bill which has reference to the entry of vessels into the ports of the United States from the continental colonies of Great Britain in North America. These are not placed, in the terins of the act, on the same footing as the ships coming from the colonies of the West Indies.

With respect to the latter, the express provision made for the direct intercourse with those colonies, together with the simultaneous repeal of the several American acts which interdict, at present, the carriage of goods from the United States to West Indian ports, in ships having arrived from other ports in the British dominions, appear fully to warrant the expression, before quoted, of Mr McLane,' that the act would confer on British vessels all those privileges, as well in the circuitous as in the direct voyage, which Great Britain has at any time demanded.' But, with regard to the continental colonies, there is merely a provision for admitting to entry, in the ports of the United States, British vessels or their cargoes from the islands, provinces, or colonies of Great Britain, on or near the North American continent, and north or east of the United States.' It must indeed be presumed that vessels from these colonies are intended to be admitted upon the same terms, in all respects, and to be entitled to the same privileges, as British ships from any other British colony.

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The act of Congress requires, as a further condition, that, when

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the intercourse with the West India colonies shall be opened by Great Britain, the commercial intercourse of the United States with all other parts of the British dominions or possessions shall be left on a footing not less favorable to the United States than it now is.'

Although it may be most truly stated that there exists, at this time, no intention to make any alteration in the commercial policy of Great Britain, and equally that there is no disposition on the part of His Majesty's Government to restrict, in any measure, the commercial relations between this country and the United States, yet the positive condition to maintain unchanged, or upon any particular footing of favor, every part of our system of trade affecting our intercourse with America, could not, with propriety, be made the subject of any specific engagement connected with the renewal of the colonial intercourse. Whether that intercourse be renewed or not, it ought to remain at all times as free as it now is, both to the Government of Great Britain and to that of the United States, to adopt, from time to time, such commercial regulations as either State may deem to be expedient for its own interests, consistently with the obligations of existing treaties.

It is due to the candor with which the communications of Mr McLane have been made on this subject, that the undersigned should be thus explicit in noticing the passage in the bill to which he has now adverted.

Mr McLane, in his note of the 12th ultimo, has described and

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explained the material diminution which has been made in the duties payable in the United States on the importation of certain articles of colonial produce. This measure has been viewed by His Majesty's Government with sincere satisfaction, as indicating a disposition to cultivate a commercial intercourse with His Majesty's colonies upon a footing of greater freedom and reciprocal advantage than has hitherto existed. But the undersigned must frankly state, that, in the general consideration of the question now to be determined, no weight ought to be assigned to the reduction of those duties, as forming any part of the grounds on which the re-establishment of the intercourse may be acceded to. Those changes are part of the general scheme of taxation which the Government of America may, at all times, impose or modify, with the same freedom as that which Great Britain may exercise in the regulation of any part of its system of duties; and it is the more essential that His Majesty's Government should not contract, by implication, any engagement towards that of the United States with respect to such alterations, because His Majesty's Government have already had under their consideration the expediency of introducing some modifications into the schedule of duties attached to the act of Parliament of 1825, with a view more effectually to support the interests of the British North American colonies. To those interests, fostered, as they have incidentally been, by the suspension of the intercourse between the United States and the West Indies,

His Majesty's Government will continue to look with an earnest desire to afford them such protection by discriminating duties, as may appear to be consistent with the interests of other parts of His Majesty's dominions, and with a sound policy in the commercial relations of this country with all other States.

The undersigned has thought it desirable that this point should be distinctly understood on both sides, in order that no doubt should exist of the right of Great Britain to vary those duties from time to time, according to her own views of expediency, unfettered by any obligation, expressed or implied, towards the United States or any other country.

The undersigned adverts again with satisfaction to the verbal explanations which he has received from Mr McLane of those passages in the act of Congress which have not appeared to the undersigned to be literally adapted to the provisions of the act of Parliament of 1825. He concurs with Mr McLane in thinking that these will be found to have been merely apparent deviations from the conditions of that statute, because the whole of the recent proceedings of the American Government and Legislature in this matter have been manifestly and expressly founded upon a determination to conform to it. Any other view of the subject would be entirely at variance with the tenor of the several communications from Mr McLane before adverted to, which have all been conformable to the explicit proposition contained in his note of the 12th December, 1829, 'that the

Government of the United States Mr Van Buren to Mr McLane.

should now comply with the conditions of the act of Parliament of July 5, 1825, by an express law, opening their ports for the admission of British vessels, and by allowing their entry with the same kind of British colonial produce as may be imported in American vessels, the vessels of both countries paying the same charges; suspending the alien duties on British vessels and cargoes, and abolishing the restrictions in the act of Congress of 1823 to the direct intercourse between the United States and the British colonies; and that such a law should be immediately followed by a revocation of the British order in Council of the 27th July, 1826, the abolition or suspension of all discriminating duties American vessels in the British colonial ports, and the enjoyment, by the United States, of the advantages of the act of Parliament of the 5th July, 1825.' It only remains, therefore, for the undersigned to assure Mr McLane that, if the President of the United States shall determine to give effect to the act of Congress, in conformity with the construction put upon its provisions both by Mr McLane and by the undersigned, all difficulty on the part of Great Britain, in the way of a renewal of the intercourse between the United States and the West Indies, according to the foregoing proposition made by Mr McLane, will thereby be removed.

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The undersigned has the honor to renew to Mr McLane the assurances of his highest consideration. ABERDEEN. LOUIS MCLANE, Esq. &c, &c, & e.

Department of State, Washington, Oct. 5, 1830. SIR: Your despatch of the 20th August was, on the 3d instant, received at this Department, and with its contents, laid before the President.

You will perceive by the inclosed proclamation, and instructions from the Treasury Department to the collectors of customs, that the President has adopted without reserve the construction given to the act of Congress of the 29th of May, 1830, by Lord Aberdeen and yourself, by accepting the assurance of the British Government, with the accompanying explanations, as a compliance with its requisitions, and by doing all that was necessary to carry the proposed arrangement into complete effect on the part of the United States. By virtue of the President's proclamation, and the operation of the act of Congress above referred to, our restrictive acts are repealed, and the ports of the United States opened to British vessels coming from any of the British colonial possessions mentioned in both sections of the act, upon the terms stated in that act, and in the accompanying instruction. President does not doubt that, having thus given effect to the arrangement on the part of this Government, that of Great Britain will without delay do what is necessary on its side to remove all existing obstructions to the renewal of the intercourse between the United States and the British colonial possessions referred to, according to the proposi

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tion submitted by you and accepted by that Government. He allows himself also to expect that the circumstance that the ports of the United States are forthwith open to British vessels, while the opening of those of Great Britain must await the action of the British Government, thus producing temporarily an unequal operation, will induce his Majesty's Government to give to the matter its earliest attention.

The President has derived great satisfaction from the candor and liberality which have characterized the conduct of his Majesty's ministers throughout the negotiation, and particularly in not suffering the inadvertencies of our legislation, attributable to the haste and confusion of the closing scenes of the session, to defeat or delay the adjustment of a question, with respect to the substance of which, and the interest of the two countries, in its adjustment, both Governments are now happily of one opinion. He cherishes the most lively anticipations of the solid benefits which will flow from the trade that is about to revive, as well as of the benign influence which the satisfactory removal of a long a long standing and vexatious impediment to the extension of their commercial intercourse is calculated to exercise upon the relations between the two countries. It is his wish that you should make his Majesty's Government acquainted with these sentiments, and assure it that he will neglect no opportunity which may present itself, to prove his sincere desire to strengthen and improve those relations by every act within

the sphere of his authority, which may contribute to confirm the good understanding so happily established.

It is also to me a pleasing duty to express to you, as I am directed to do, the entire satisfaction of the President with your conduct on this important occasion. The untiring zeal, patriotic exertions, and great ability, which you have displayed in the difficult negotiation thus satisfactorily concluded, realize all the anticipations he had formed from the employment of your talents in this important branch of the public service, and entitle you to the thanks of your country. To these sentiments I beg leave to add the expression of my own unqualified approbation of all your acts since the commencement of your mission near the Government of Great Britain.

I am, with great respect, your obedient servant,

M. VAN BUREN. Louis MCLANE, Esq. Envoy Extraordinary, &c. &c.

By the President of the United States of America.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, by an act of the Congress of the United States, passed on the twentyninth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and thirty, it is provided, that, whenever the President of the United States shall receive satisfactory evidence that the Government of Great Britain will open the ports. in its colonial possessions in the West Indies, on the continent of South America, the Bahama islands, the Caicos, and the Ber-muda or Somer islands, to the vessels of the United States, for

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