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.

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 greater 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 November have been arraigned by this government, I enclose a copy of the answer to Mr. Erskine's note communicating them, a copy of the note being also enclosed.

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

This despatch 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 publick and mercantile correspondence with Europe. She will proceed, in the first instance, to L'Orient, where she will leave Mr. Baker, and thence proceed with despatches 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."

SIR,

Mr. Madison, to General Armstrong.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, JULY 21, 1808.

HEREWITH You will receive a copy of the papers relating to one of the vessels which were destroyed at sea by the French frigates returning from the West Indies. I observe that in your letter to M. Champagny, of the 2d of April, you have incidentally noticed this oecurrence. If ample reparation should not have been made to the sufferers, the President thinks it proper, that as their cases become authenticated, you should present them in terms which may awaken the French government to the nature of the injury and the demands of justice. The burning of neutral vessels detained on the high seas is the most distressing of all the modes by which belligerents exert force contrary to right; and in proportion as it is destitute of apology, ought at least to be the promptitude and amplitude of the redress. If it be contended that the destruction in these cases proceeded solely from the danger that, otherwise, intelligence might reach a pursuing or hovering force, it may be answered, that if such a plea were of greater avail, it would only disprove a hostility of intention, without diminishing the obligation to indemnify, on the most liberal scale, the injured individuals. It may be added, that if the outrage on the individuals was not meant as a hostility towards their nation, the latter might justly expect a tender of such explanations as would leave no doubt on this subject.

I have the honour to be, &c.

(Signed)

JAMES MADISON.

General ARMSTRONG, Minister Plenipotentiary

of the United States, Paris.

Extract of a Letter from Mr. Madison to Gen. Armstrong.

"DEPARTMENT OF STATE, JULY 22, 1808.

"YOUR despatches by lieutenant Lewis were delivered on the 8th instant.

It is regretted that the interval between his arrival and the date of your letter to M. Champagny, during which I presume some verbal intercommunication must have taken place, had produced no indication of a favourable change in the views of the French government with respect to its decrees; and still more that instead of an early and favourable answer to your letter, it should have been followed by such a decree as is reported to have been issued on the 22d April, at Bayonne. The decree has not yet reached the United States, and therefore its precise import cannot be ascertained. But if it should be, as it is represented, a sweeping stroke at all American vessels on the high seas, it will not only extend our demands of reparation, but is rendered the more ominous with respect to the temper and views of the emperour towards the United States by the date of the measure.

The arrival of Mr. Baker with my letter of May 2d, of which a copy is herewith sent, will have enabled you to resume the subject of the decrees with the fairest opportunity that could be given to the French government for a change of the unjust and unwise course which has been pursued, and I assure myself that you will not have failed to turn the communications with which you are furnished to the best account. If France does not wish to throw the United States into the war against her, for which it is impossible to find a rational or plausible inducement, she ought not to hesitate a moment, in revoking at least so much of her decrees as violate the rights of the sea, and furnish to her adversary the pretext for his retaliating measures. It would seem as if the imperial cabinet had never paid sufficient attention to the smallness of the sacrifice which a repeal of that portion of its system would involve, if an act of justice is to be called a sacrifice.

The information by the return of the Osage from England is not more satisfactory than that from France.Nothing was said on the subject of the Chesapeake, nor any thing done or promised as to the orders in council. It is probable that further accounts from the United States were waited for, and that the arrival of the St. Michael will have led to a manifestation of the real views of that government on those and other subjects. In the mean time it cannot be doubted that hopes were cherished there of some events in this country favourable to the policy of the orders, and particularly that the offensive language and proceedings of France, would bring on a hostile resistance from the United States; in which case the British government would be able to mould every thing to its satisfaction. There is much reason to believe that if the British government should not concur in a mutual abolition of the orders and of the embargo, it will result from an unwillingness to set an example which might be followed and might consequently put an end to the irritating career of her enemy, on which the calculation is built. Might not use be made of this view of the matter in those frank and friendly conversations which sometimes best admit topicks of a delicate nature, and in which pride and prejudice can be best managed, without descending from the necessary level? In every view it is evidently proper, as far as respect to the national honour will allow, to avoid a style of procedure which might cooperate with the policy of the British government, by stimulating the passions of the French."

SIR,

[DUPLICATE.]

General Armstrong to Mr. Madison.

PARIS, NOV. 12, 1807.

IT was not till yesterday, that I received from Mr. Skipwith a copy of the decree of the council of prizes in the case of the Horizon. This is the first unfriendly decision of that body under the arrêté of the 21st of November, 1806. In this case, and on the petition of the defendant,

the court has recommended the restitution of the whole cargo. I did not however think proper to join in asking as a favour, what I believed myself entitled to as a right. I subjoin a copy of my note to the minister of foreign affairs, and am, sir, &e.

SIR,

(Signed)

JOHN ARMSTRONG.

The same to M. Champagny.t

PARIS, NOV. 12, 1807.

THE document to which these observations are prefixed will inform your excellency, that an American ship, trading under the protection of the laws of nations, and of particular treaties, and suffering shipwreck on the coast of France, has recently been seized by his majesty's officers, and adjudged by his council of prizes as follows, viz.

"Our council puts at liberty the American vessel the Horizon, shipwrecked the 30th of May last, near Morlaix, and consequently orders that the amount arising from the sale legally made of the wreck of the said vessel, together with the merchandise of the cargo, which, according to an estimate made in presence of the overseers of the administrations of the marine and custom house, shall have been acknowledged not to proceed from English manufactures, nor from English territory, shall be restored to captain Mac Clure, without deducting any other expenses than those relative to the sale: and with regard to the other merchandise of the cargo, which, from the result of the said estimate, shall be acknowledged to come from English manufactures, or English territory, by virtue of the 5th article of the decree of the 21st of November, 1806, it shall be confiscated for the use of the state: the whole to be sold by the forms prescribed in the regulations, and the application of the product to be made in conformity to the

+ Note of general Armstrong." In the former copy nearly a page of this letter was omitted by the copier."