under whose authority they acted, should pay the masters or owners of the vessels "the full value of all such articles, with a reasonable mercantile profit thereon, together with the freight, and also the demurrage" incident to the detention. To this argument reply was made that the stipulation of Article XVIII., since it referred to "the existing law of nations" as the criterion, did not effect any alteration in the rules which previously governed the subject; and that, according to those rules, the prospect of reducing the enemy by famine must be actual and immediate, as in the siege, blockade, or investment of particular places, and not vague and impalpable. In the case before the board there was no such prospect. While the enforcement of the order was productive of inconvenience to the enemy, there was no possibility of producing an actual famine by it. The second ground assumed in support of the orders was that they were necessary to Great Britain, which was at the time threatened with a scarcity of provisions. To this assumption answer was made that the necessity which would warrant such a method of supplying a nation's wants must be real and imminent, and without other means of relief; that the offer of better prices in English than in French ports would have attracted importations; and that in reality after the orders were carried into effect an offer by the British Government of a bounty on imported articles soon caused the market to be overstocked. With such arguments the contention that provisions had properly been treated as contraband was met and overcome. The opinions of Messrs. Gore, Pinkney, and Trumbull in the case of the Neptune, printed in the digest, will more fully disclose the various grounds on which the orders were determined to be illegal. The proceedings of the board were brought Close of Proceedings. to a close on the 24th of February 1804, all the business before it having been completed.' The amount and progress of the business before it at various stages of its existence are disclosed by reports made at the periods of its suspension and conclusion. Amount of Business When its proceedings were interrupted in June 1798 by the controversy touching the disposition to be made of cases still pending in the courts, the awards against Great Britain made and Messrs. Gore and Pinkney to Mr. Madison, Sec. of State, February 24, 1804. (MSS. Dept. of State.) completed by the board, and payable on the 5th of that month, amounted to £34,516 16s. 24d., while the claims disposed of outside by Sir William Scott and Dr. Nicholl, in 39 cases for costs and damages, amounted, with interest to the 5th of June, to £24,659 7s. 1d. During the same period the records disclose awards on British claims against the United States to the amount of $33,590.60. Congress on January 15, 1798, appropriated $52,000 to pay awards of the commission. When the proceedings of the board were suspended in July 1799 in consequence of the disruption of the commission at Philadelphia, the whole amount of the business then transacted, as shown by a statement made November 16, 1799, by Mr. Trumbull to Mr. King, was as follows:2 The amount of the awards against the United States was given by the American commissioners as $33,594.64. The awards against Great Britain after the reassembling of the board in February 1802 amounted to £1,225,901 14s. 10d.3 By the manuscript reports of Messrs. Gore and Pinkney it appears that from the time of reassembling to July 15, 1803, 467 such awards were made in 300 cases, the awards amounting to £1,083,990 3s. 8d. Between July 15 and August 19, 1803, 23 Mr. Cabot to Mr. Pickering, Sec. of State, July 28, 1798. (MSS. Dept. of State.) * Trumbull's Autobiography, 263. 3 By an act of February 10, 1811 (2 Stats. at L. 647), Congress appropriated $22,392.67 to compensate Mr. Erving for the receipt and payment of awards made in favor of American citizens while he was agent, at the rate of 24 per cent on the amount of the awards actually received by him. awards were made, amounting to £89,341 4s. 3d. Subsequently 22 awards were made (in 22 cases), amounting to £51,669 16s. 11d. In all, between February 1802 and the final adjournment, 512 awards were made in favor of American claimants. It has been seen that the awards in favor of British claimants prior to the suspension of the board in 1799 amounted to $33,594.64. After the reassembling of the board in 1802 seven awards were made against the United States, amounting to $109,833.50. Of these awards, 1 was made prior to July 15, 1803; 2 between that date and August 22, and 4 subsequently. Thus the total amount of the awards against the United States, before and after the suspension of the proceedings of the board, appears to have been $143,428.14. By an act of November 16, 1803,2 a sum not to exceed $50,000 was appropriated to carry into effect Article VII., and the accounting officers of the Treasury were authorized to allow interest, not exceeding 6 per cent, on one-third part of the amount of any award made in pursuance of the article and presented to the Treasury prior to the passage of the act, to be calculated from the time when the award should have been presented. By an act of November 24, 1804, a sum not to exceed $70,000 was appropriated, generally, to carry the article into effect. 3 Statement of Mr. Mr. Trumbull states that in a copy of the second volume of the Opinions of the Commissioners, which was in his possession, there was the following entry: 4 "Mr. Samuel Cabot, who was one of the assessors of the board, and who, from his other relations to the claims of American citizens for compensation, on account of captures by British cruisers, previous to the treaty of 1794, had an intimate knowledge of all that was claimed and paid, states that the amount awarded by the board, and paid by the British government to have been in pounds sterling £1, 350, 000 By an act of March 3, 1801 (2 Stats. at L. 202), Congress appropriated $58,864, in general terms, to carry the treaty into effect. 22 Stats. at L. 248. 32 Stats. at L. 307. In an opinion of December 24, 1804, the AttorneyGeneral of the United States advised, in the case of an award against the United States, that the government had only to see that the money was paid to the persons in whose favor it was awarded, and that for the adjustment of contested interests the parties must resort to the courts. (1 Op. 153.) Autobiography, 237, "Amounts recovered from the captors, on what were called Martinique cases, meaning captures in the West Indies.. "Amounts produced to claimants from other cases of restitution.... "That the vessels captured, under what were called 'Provision Orders,' viz-orders to capture vessels bound to France, and laden with provisions, were in number one hundred and twenty, and that there must have been received from the British government, at least £6,000 each.... "Amount in dollars, allowing five dollars to the pound sterling..... Results of Commission. £100,000 160,000 720,000 £2, 330,000" $11, 650, 000 "This was," says Mr. Trumbull, "the statement of Mr. Cabot, whose accuracy and knowledge of the subject were beyond all doubt. From the foregoing statement it appears, that the large sum of eleven million six hundred and fifty thousand dollars was recovered by American citizens from the hands of British captors, by, or in consequence of, the abused treaty of 1794, negotiated by Mr. Jay. The whole of this sum was promptly and punctually paid to each complainant, or his assignee; for, after a careful and accurate examination of the merits of every case of complaint, the awards of the board were made in favor of each individual, in the form of an order to pay, and payable at the treasury of Great Britain; nor do I recollect even to have heard a single complaint, of the delay of an hour, in any instance of an award presented for payment."1 Expenses. The compensation allowed to the American commissioners in London was $6,667.50 a year.2 Appropriations were duly made for the compensation of the American commissioners and half the compensation of the fifth commissioner, for the salaries of the assessor and agents on the part of the United States, and for clerk hire and contingent expenses. Large sums were expended in obtaining evidence in the West Indies. It was estimated that the expenses of the United States under and in connection with Autobiography, 239. 2 Act of May 6, 1796. (1 Stats. at L. 460.) Article VII. up to July 1, 1800, amounted to $231,351.28. This estimate was constituted as follows: Obtaining papers from the West Indies Paid to Samuel Bayard.... proctors in London prior to August 19,1797. $24, 392.98 14, 551. 09 32, 185. 40 28, 333. 32 Immunities of Com- Soon after the arrival of Messrs. Gore and Pinkney in London in 1796 a question was raised as to the immunities to which they were entitled under the law of nations in their character of commissioners. The consideration of this question was occasioned by the fact that, on their arrival, one of them was required to pay on articles brought with him duties which were not, under similar circumstances, required of public ministers; and in November of the same year officers of the government called at their houses and took down their names and those of their servants for enrollment in the militia. In consequence of these incidents Messrs. Gore and Pinkney addressed to Mr. King a letter, in which, without specifying the particular grounds of 1 See acts of May 6, 1796 (1 Stats. at L. 460), appropriating $80,808 to defray the expense of executing the treaty; March 3, 1797 (Id. 516), appropriating $50,000 for defraying expenses in connection with prize causes pending in English and other admiralty courts; March 2, 1799 (Id. 723), appropriating $16,666.67 for salaries of the commissioners under Article VII., and $9,833.33 for salaries, clerk hire, and contingent expenses of "the two agents residing in England,” in connection with the prize causes; May 7, 1800 (2 Id. 66), appropriating $16,444 for the commissioners and $9,000 for the agents and their expenses; May 1, 1802 (Id. 188), appropriating for salaries of the commissioners $24,066.67, and for the salaries and expenses of "the agents of the United States in London and Paris," $29,000; March 2, 1803 (Id. 215), appropriating for the salaries of the commissioners and assessor, and for contingent expenses, $22,566.67, and for the salaries and expenses of the agents in London and Paris, $29,000. At one time there were agents for claims on account of spoliations at London, Paris, Copenhagen, and The Hague. See acts of April 16, 1816 (3 Stats. at L. 283); March 3, 1817 (Id. 358); April 9, 1818 (Id. 423); April 11, 1820 (Id. 561). A |