the other party, to receive on board and carry to sea [knowing them to be such] the sailors, belonging to, and deserting from such vessels. It is further agreed, whenever the vessels, having on board the sailors who may have so deserted in a neutral port, shall arrive at any port of the party to which they be long, that such party shall cause such deserters to be delivered up, on proper application supported by lawful evidence, to the agent or consul of the other party, who may be duly authorized by his government to act in such cases. parties agree, that for the greater security of the subjects of the neutral, they will enact such laws respectively, as shall subject to heavy penalties the commanders of the belligerent ships, who shall impress or carry off the native subjects of the neutral, or others not being the subjects of the belligerent, from on board the neutral vessels, on any pretence whatsoever. And they further agree to enact laws respectively, making it highly penal in the subjects of the neutral to grant any certificates of the birth and country of seafaring persons, without due evidence and proof of the same. [TRIPLICATE.] No. 7. SIR, LONDON, DECEMBER 27, 1806. WE have the pleasure to acquaint you that we have this day agreed with the British commissioners to conclude a treaty on all the points which had formed the object of our negotiation, and on terms which we trust our government will approve. It will require only a few days to reduce it to form. When that is done we shall transmit it to you by a special messenger. We hasten to communicate to you this interesting intelligence, for the information and guidance of our government in such measures as may have reference to the subject. We have the honour to be, &c. JAMES MONROE, JAMES MADISON, Secretary of State, Washington. No. 8. SIR, LONDON, JAN. 5, 1807. We have the honour to transmit you a treaty, which we concluded with the British commissioners on the 31st of December. Although we had entertained great confidence from the commencement of the negotiation, that such would be its result, it was not until the 27th, that we were able to make any satisfactory arrangement of several of the most important points, that were involved in it. On the next day we communicated to you that event by several despatches, three of which were forwarded by vessels from Liverpool, so that we hope you will receive very early intelligence of it. We commit this, with the treaty, to Mr. Purviance, who we flatter ourselves will have the good fortune to arrive in time to deliver it to you before the adjournment of Congress. The necessity we feel ourselves under to forward to you the treaty without delay will, we fear, render it impossible for us to enter so fully into the subject of it, as on many considerations it might be proper to do. We are aware that such instruments must be construed by an impartial view of their contents, uninfluenced by extraneous matter. A knowledge, however, of the sense in which the several articles of a treaty were understood by the parties to it, may in most cases be useful. It is also just to remark that some circumstances occurred in the course of this negotiation, which, although they do not appear on the face of the instrument itself, yet as they may have no inconsiderable influence on the future relations of the two countries, it is peculiarly important to explain. We shall endeavour to give such explanations, where they may be necessary, in the best manner that may be found compatible with the despatch which the occasion so imperiously requires, and we flatter ourselves without omitting any thing on any point that may be deemed of essential importance. The first article of the present treaty, which stipulates that peace shall subsist between the parties, is taken from that of 1794, and is found in most of the modern treaties. The second article confirms those of a permanent nature in the treaty of 1794. The British commissioners were very desirous to introduce the permanent articles of that treaty, in the form of new stipulations, into the present one. They insisted with great earnestness, that the article which relates to the trade with the Indian tribes, should be so amended as to admit the traders of Canada and the Hudson Bay company to participate with us in the trade with the tribes in Louisiana. They seemed to admit, that by a fair construction of the article they could not support such a claim, but contended that it was justified by its spirit. Their solicitude on this point, which they had supposed was an unimportant one to the United States, created some embarrassment and delay in the business. They intimated that it proceeded from a desire to conciliate the publick opinion in this country in favour of the treaty, which became necessary in consequence of the concessions which they thought they made us on other points. As we were decidedly of opinion that the article in the treaty of 1794 could not apply to territory afterwards acquired, and could see nothing in its spirit which entitled it to such an extension, and more especially as our instructions contemplated a different result, it was impossible for us to adopt that proposal. They finally agreed therefore, though not without evident reluctance, to the article in its present form. We regret to say that the third article, which regulates our trade with the British possessions in India, which, with one essential and most unfavourable difference, is the same with the thirteenth article of the treaty of 1794, is not what we had been led to hope it would be practicable to make it. Aware of the importance attached to this commerce in America, we have used the most zealous and persevering efforts not only to prevent the introduction of new restraints upon it, but even to emancipate it from some of those which the treaty of 1794 had distinctly sanctioned. The India company have, however, been less accom modating than was at first expected, and hence the rejection of all the amendments proposed by us, one of which sought to omit entirely, and (when that was refused) to modify, the proviso copied from the treaty of 1794, that our voyages from the British possessions should be direct to the United States. This amendment, in both its shapes, was repelled in such a manner as to convince us that nothing would be gained by continuing to press it, and we gave it up at length with great reluctance. In this stage of the business, the British commissioners insisted upon an amendment upon their part, by which our voyages to British India were required to be direct from the United States. This unexpected amendment was proposed, at the instance of the India Company, after the project of the British commissioners (which, with reference to this subject, was a literal copy of the 13th article of the treaty of 1794) had not only been presented to us, but fully discussed, and, as we understood, settled. The real intention and office of it were said, by lord Holland and lord Auckland, to be no more than to make the article speak unequivocally what was the true meaning of the article in the late treaty. We replied to this, that the article in the late treaty was not susceptible of this limited construction; that its obvious import was that only the voyage from India should be direct; that this had been solemnly adjudged by their own courts of law, and that the practice had been and still continued to be so. We were answered by the production of a paper purporting to be a report of that in their opinion an American vessel was not entitled to a clearance from a port in Great Britain to Calcutta under the treaty of 1794. We were told moreover, that lord Grenville when he made the treaty, the India company when it sanctioned, and the British government when it ratified it, did not mean to authorize any other than direct voyages, outward, as well as homeward, between the United States and their Indian possessions, and that, if the treaty was liable to any other construction, it arose from mere inadvertence in adjusting the phraseology; but that in truth it was not a fair and * VOL. III. 8 natural interpretation of words, which authorized a com merce between two defined limits: that a commerce be tween one of those limits and some third place was intended to be allowed, although not a word was said about it in the article. Having given the obvious answer to these suggestions, we urged, as long and as zealously as was thought advisable, the inconveniences to which our trade with India would be subjected by prohibiting any of the modes in which it was prosecuted, as well as the unfriendly appearance of the new restriction, for which there existed no adequate motive. We spoke of the sensibility which would be excited in our country by such an ill-timed and ungracious interferenee, the interests which it would affect, and the passions which it would enlist against the entire treaty to all which it was finally answered, that the India company could not be prevailed upon to relax upon this point; that moreover it ought not to be forgotten that this was a trade from which their own subjects were ordinarily excluded in favour of the company's monopoly; that this monopoly, as a losing concern, seemed at present to require peculiar protection; that our admission into British India at all was a boon, for which we did not and could not give any equivalent, and of course that we could not justly complain, if that admission was somewhat qualified with a view to the mitigation of the evils by which it was undoubtedly attended, and which it was not possible wholly to prevent, especially if we were not placed upon a more disadvantageous footing in that respect than other friendly powers, which was so far from being the case, that we were unquestionably admitted by the article, as they proposed to amend it, upon much better terms than any other nation, inasmuch as our commerce (exclusive of the advantage of being secured by treaty) would be subject only to British duties, whereas the Danes and Swedes paid alien duties to a considerable amount, without enjoying any privilege, (whatever might be said to the contrary) to which we were not equally entitled. We were at last reduced to the necessity of accepting the article with the |