levied, collected, answered, paid, recovered, allowed, appropriated and applied, and the goods, wares or merchan dise, so by this act respectively made liable to the payment of, or chargeable with duties of customs and excise, or so entitled to drawback of duties of customs and excise upon the importation thereof into, or exportation thereof from Great Britain, or any other account whatever, shall be, and the same are hereby made subject and liable to all and every the conditions, regulations, rules, restrictions and forfeitures, to which goods, wares, or merchandise in general, and also all and every the special conditions, rules, restrictions, regulations, and forfeitures respectively, to which the like goods, wares, or merchandise respectively, were subject and liable by any act or acts of parliament in force on and immediately before the passing of this act, respecting the revenues of customs and excise; and all and every pain, penalty, fine or forfeiture, of any nature or kind whatever, for any offence whatever committed against or in breach of any act or acts of parliament in force on and immediately before the passing of this act, made for securing the revenue of customs and excise, or for the regulation or improvement thereof, and the several clauses, powers, and directions therein contained, shall and are hereby directed and declared to extend to, and shall be respectively applied, practised, and put in execution for and in respect of the several duties of customs and excise, and drawbacks of duties of customs and excise hereby charged and allowed, in as full and ample manner, to all intents and purposes whatever, as if all and every the said acts, clauses, provisions, powers, directions, fines, pains, penalties or forfeitures were particularly repeated and re-enacted in the body of this act.

VI. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for his majesty by and with the advice of his privy council by any order in council or by any proclamation made for that purpose, to cause the provisions of this act to be suspended for such time as his majesty, his heirs and successors, may deem expedient and

necessary; any thing in this act to the contrary notwithstanding.

VII. And be it further enacted, That this act shall continue in force to the end of the next session of parliament.

By the honourable sir Alexander Cochrane, K. B. rear admiral of the red, and commander in chief of his majesty's ships and vessels employed and to be employed at Barbadoes, the Leeward Islands, &c. &c.

WHEREAS an intimation has been received from the right honourable lord viscount Castlereagh, one of his majesty's principal secretaries of state, that the strictest naval blockade is to be established over the Leeward French Carribean islands. The several captains, commanders and commanding officers under my orders, are hereby authorized and directed, to stop all neutral vessels destined for any of the ports of the said islands; and if they shall appear to be ignorant of the existence of the blockade, and have no enemy's property on board, the masters of such neutral vessels shall be apprized thereof, and warned not to proceed to such ports, and a notice written to that effect upon one or more of the principal ship papers.

But if a neutral vessel shall appear to have been so warned, or to be otherwise informed of the existence of the blockade, or to have sailed from her last clearing port after it may be reasonably supposed that this notification might have been made publick there, and yet be found attempting, or intending to enter either of the ports of the said islands, such vessel shall be seized and sent into port for legal adjudication. And with respect to neutral vessels coming out of said ports having any colonial produce, goods or merchandise on board, appearing to have been laden after knowledge of the blockade, such vessel shall, in like manner, be seized and sent in for legal adjudication. Given on board the Belleisle, Carlisle bay, Barbadoes, October 14, 1808.

(Signed)

ALEXANDER COCHRANE.
By command of the rear admiral,
(Signed)
JOHN S. TRACY.

FRENCH DECREES, &c.

[TRANSLATION.]

Copy of the Decree of the National Convention of the 9th May, 1793, 2d year of the Republick of France.

THE national convention, after having heard the report of their marine committee, considering that the flag of neutral powers is not respected by the enemies of France; that two cargoes of flour arrived at Falmouth in AngloAmerican vessels, and purchased before the war for the service of the marine of France, have been detained in England by the government, who would not pay for them, except at a price below that at which flour had been sold:

That a vessel from Papembourg, called the Therisia, commanded by captain Hendrick Kob, laden with divers effects belonging to Frenchmen, has been conducted to Dover, the 2d of March last, by an English cutter:

That a privateer of the same nation has carried into the same port of Dover, the 18th of the same month, the Danish ship Mercury, Christianlund, captain Freuchen, expedited from Dunkirk on the 17th with a cargo of wheat for Bordeaux:

That the ship John, captain Shklely, laden with near six thousand quintals of American wheat, bound from Falmouth to St. Mala, has been taken by an English frigate, and conducted to Guernsey, where the agents of the government have simply promised to pay the value of the eargo, because it was not on account of the French:

That one hundred and one French passengers of different professions, embarked at Cadiz by order of the Spanish minister, in a Genoese ship called the Providence, captain Ambrose Briasco, bound to Bayonne, have been shamefully pillaged by the crew of an English privateer:

That the divers reports, which are successively made by the maritime cities of the republick, announce that these same acts of inhumanity and injustice are daily multiplied and repeated with impunity throughout the seas:

That, under such circumstances, all the rights of nations being violated, the French people are no longer permitted to fulfil, towards the neutral powers in general, the vows they have so often manifested, and which they will constantly make, for the full and entire liberty of commerce and navigation-decree as follows:

ART. I. The French ships of war and privateers may arrest, and bring into the ports of the republick, the neutral vessels which shall be laden, wholly or in part, either with articles of provision belonging to neutral nations, and destined for an enemy's port, or with merchandises belonging to an enemy.

II. The merchandises belonging to an enemy shall be declared good prize, and confiscated to the profit of the captors: the articles of provisions belonging to neutral nations, and laden for an enemy's port, shall be paid for according to their value in the place to which they were destined.

III. In all cases the neutral vessels shall be released as soon as the unlading of the articles of provision arrested, or of the merchandise seized, shall have been effected. The freight thereof shall be paid at the rate which shall have been stipulated by the persons who shipped them. A just indemnification shall be allowed, in proportion to their detention, by the tribunals who are to have cognizance of the validity of the prizes.

Iv. These tribunals shall be bound to transmit, three days after their decision, a copy of the inventory of the said articles of provision or merchandise, to the minister of marine, and another to the minister for foreign affairs.

v. The present law, applicable to all the prizes which have been made since the declaration of war, shall cease to have effect, as soon as the enemy powers shall have declared free and not seizable, although destined for the ports of the republick, the articles of provision belonging to neutral nations, and the merchandises laden in neutral vessels, and belonging to the government or citizens of France.

[TRANSLATION.]

Decree of the national convention of the 23d May, which declares that the vessels of the United States are not comprehended in the dispositions of the decree of the 9th of May.

THE national convention, after having heard the report of their committee of publick safety, wishing to maintain the union established between the French republick and the United States of America, decree, that the vessels of the United States are not comprehended in the dispositions of the decree of the 9th of May, conformably to the 16th article of the treaty concluded on the 16th of February, 1778.

True copy.

LE BRUN.

NOTE. It appears that on the 28th May, the convention passed a decrce which so far repealed that of the 23d May, as to place in a state of provisional sequestration the property seized under the decree of the 9th May.

No copy of the decree of the 28th May is to be found in the department of state.

[TRANSLATION.]

Copy of the decree of the national convention of the 1st
July, 1793, 2d year of the French republick, which
exempts from the dispositions of the decree of the 9th
May, 1793, the vessels of the United States.

THE Convention, after having heard the report of the committee of publick safety, wishing to maintain the union established between the French republick and the United States of America, decrees, that the vessels of the United States are not comprised in the dispositions of the decree of the 9th May, conformably to the 16th article of the treaty concluded the 6th of February, 1778.

Certified conformable to the original.

DEFORGUE.