CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER.

No. 39.] TWELFTH CONGRESS.... FIRST SESSION. [1811-12.

(TRANSLATION.)

Report of the Minister of foreign relations to his Majesty the Emperor and King, communicated to the conservative senate, in the sitting of 10th March, 1812. ·

(CONCLUDED.)

THE forces of your majefty will be thus conftantly maintained on the moft formidable footing; and the French territory, protected by a permanent establishment, which is recommended by the intereft, the policy, and dignity of the empire, will find itlelf in a fituation which will make it more deferving of the title of inviolable and facred.

It is a long time fince the actual government of Great Britain proclaimed perpetual war, a frightful project which the most unbridled ambition would not have dared to form, and which a prefumptuous boafting could only have avowed; a frightful project which might, however, be realized, if France could hope for nothing but engagement without guarantee, of an uncertain length, and even more difaftrous than war.

Peace, fire, which your majefty, in the midst of your great power, has fo often offered to your enemies, will crown your glorio us labors, if England, excluded with pefeverance from the continent, and feparated from all the ftates whofe independence the has violated, confents at length to enter upon the principles which form the bafis of European fociety, to acknowledge the law of nations, and the rights confecrated by the treaty of Utrecht.

In the mean time, the French people must remain in arms : honor commands it; the intereft, the rights, the independence of the nations are engaged in the fame caufe; and an oracle ftill more certain, which has often been pronounced by your majefty, makes it an imperious and facred law.

MR. MONROE TO MR. FOSTER.

Department of State, June 3d, 1812. SIR-In the letter of May 30th, which I had the honor to receive from you on the firft inftant, I perceive a difference in a particular paffage of it from a paffage on the fame subject, in the difpatch from Lord Caftlereagh to you, which you were fo good as to communicate to me entire, as appears from the tenor of the letter to have been intended by your government. The paffage in your letter, to which I allude, is as follows: "America, as the No. 39.

cafe now ftands, has not a pretence for claiming from Great Britain a repeal of her orders in council. She must recollect, that the British government never for a moment countenanced the idea that the repeal of thofe orders could depend upon any partial or conditional repeal of the decrees of France. What the always avowed was her readinefs to refcind her orders in council as foon as France refcinded absolutely and unconditionally her decrees. She could not enter into any other engagement without the groffeft injuftice to her allies as well as to neutral nations in general; much lefs could fhe do fo if any special exception was to be granted by France upon conditions utterly fubverfive of the most important and indifputable maritime rights of the British empire."

According to the tenor of the difpatch of Lord Caftlereagh to you, my recollection is, that in ftating the condition on which the orders in council were to be repealed in relation to the United States, it was fpecified that the decrees of Berlin and Milan muft not be repealed fingly and fpecially in relation to the United States, but be repealed alfo as to all other neutral nations, and that in no lefs extent of a repeal of the decrees had the British government ever pledged itfelf to repeal the orders in council.

However fufceptible the paflage in your letter may be of a conftruction reconcilable with the import of the difpatch from Lord Caftlereagh, yet as a fimilar phrafeology of your government on other occafions has had a conftruction lefs extenfive; and as it is important, in every refpect, that there fhould be no mifunderstanding, or poffibility of error, you will excufe me for requefting that you will have the goodness to inform me whether, in any circumftance, my recollection of the import of this paffage in Lord Caftlereagh's difpatch is inaccurate.

I have the honor to be, &c.
(Signed)

Aug. F. Foster, &c. &c.

JAMES MONROE.

MR. FOSTER TO MR. MONROE.

Washington, June 3, 1812. SIR-I have received your letter of to-day, requefting an explanation relative to the fuppofed meaning of a paffage in a difpatch from Lord Caftlereagh to me that I had the honor to communicate to you confidentially, and I beg leave to state to you that while I conceive it to be very difficult to give an explanation upon a fingle point in a note of confiderable length without referring to the whole context, and alfo believe it to be altogether irregular to enter into a difcuffion refpecting a communication fo entirely informal, yet I have no hefitation in affuring you that my note of May 30, contains the whole fubftance of the difpatch alluded to.

In the correspondence that will probably take place, between us in confequence of the new ground upon which the duke of

1

Baffano's report has placed the queftion at iffue between our two countries, I fhall be extremely happy to enter at full length upon any topic which you may wifh particularly to difcufs.

I have the honor to be, with the higheft confideration and refpect, fir, your most obedient humble fervant.

AUG. J. FOSTER.

To the hon. James Monroe, &c. &c. &c.

MR. MONROE TO MR FOSTER.

Department of State, June 4, 1812. SIR-I have had the honor to receive your letter of yesterday, in reply to mine of the fame date.

As the dispatch of Lord Caftlereagh was communicated by you to me, in my official character, to be fhewn to the Prefident, and was fhewn to him accordingly, and as the dispatch itself expressly authorifed fuch a communication to this government, I cannot conceive in what fenfe fuch a proceeding could be confidered confidential, or how it could be understood, that the Executive was to receive one communication for itself, and tranfmit to Congrefs another, liable, in the opinion of the Executive, to a different or doubtful conftruction. I cannot but perfuade myself, fir, that on a re-confideration of the fubject, you will perceive that there can be no impropriety in a compliance with the request contained in my letter of yefterday. Should I be mistaken in this expectation, I flatter myself that you will fee the propriety of freeing your own communication from ambiguity and liability to mifconftruction. With a view to this, permit me to inquire whether the paffage in your letter, ftating the condition on which your government always avowed its readiness to refcind the or. ders in council, namely, as foon as France refcinded, abfolutely and unconditionally, her decrees, includes in its meaning, that the decrees must be refcinded in relation to other neutral nations, as well as to the United States, previous to a repeal of the orders in council in relation to the United States ?

I have the honor to be, &c. &c.

Aug. F. Foster, Esq. &c. &c.

MESSAGE.

JAMES MONROE.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the

United States,

I lay before Congrefs copies of letters which have paffed be tween the Secretary of State and the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Great Britain.

JAMES MADISON.

June 8, 1812.

CORRESPONDENCE ON THE ORDERS IN COUNCIL.

MR. FOSTER TO MR. MONROE.

Washington, June 4, 1812. SIR-Since I had the honor of feeing you at your office y efterday, I have perceived an article in the public prints, stated to be extracted from an English newspaper, and purporting to be an official declaration of his royal highnefs the prince regent, that the orders in council will be and are abfolutely revoked from the period when the Berlin and Milan decrees fhall, by fome authentic act of the French government, publicly promulgated, be exprefsly and unconditionally repealed. A confiderable time has now elapfed fince by order of my government I had the honor of - urging to you the expediency of procuring fuch an authentic act from the French government, and in all probability the above declaration may have been iffued in the confident expectation that the government of the United States would have been able to produce it ere this.

At all events, fir, confidering the important nature of the abovementioned article and the probability that I fhall have foon to be the organ of fome official communication to the American government in relation to it, I cannot but truft that no measure will meanwhile be adopted by the Congrefs, which would defeat the endeavor of procuring a complete reconciliation between our two countries.

Should any embarrassments arife in confequence of the declaration on the fubject of the propofed revocation of the orders in council, above alluded to, refting at prefent upon a mere flatement in the newspapers, it will no doubt occur to your recollection, that on the enactment of thofe orders a measure was taken by Congrefs for the purpofe of meeting them when they were as yet known but through the public prints.

I have the honor to be, &c. &c. (Signed)

AUG. J. FOSTER.

MR. FOSTER TO MR. MONROE.

Washington, June 4, 1812. SIR-I muft rely upon your candor to feel for the embarrassment into which your note of this day has thrown me.

Willing to comply with the requeft contained in it, I yet cannot but be fenfible that in making any portion of a dispatch from his majesty's fecretary of state to me the fubject of a correfpondence between us, I fhould not be juftified to my own government. I believe there is no example of a correfpondence of fuch a nature, and I fhould be very loth to eftablifh the precedent.

When I had the honor to make the communication of Lord Caftlereagh's difpatch to you, in confequence of its being left to my own difcretion to do fo, I did it because I had reafon to think, from the number of my letters which then remained unaufwered at your office, fuch a communication, if made through

a note, might have fhared the fate of the reft. You will recollect that it was at your own requeft that I acceded to the dif patch being communicated to the Prefident: and that it was alfo at your inftance, as being the only regular way in which the' fubject could come before the American government, that I determined to write to you a note founded upon it. You were aware at the latter end of last weck, that fuch was my determination, which I repeated to you through Mr. Graham who called upon me on the 30th ultimo, to afk me when I contemplated fending it to your office. The note must have reached you and been read before any meffage could have been fent from the Executive to Congrefs.

I cannot, fir, confider my note liable to the charge of ambiguity which you now impute to it. The abandonment of our most important maritime rights is more extenfively than ever connected by France with the demand of a repeal of our orders in council, and while you are entirely filent as to how far America concurs with her on this point of vital intereft to Great Britain, without even a profpect of a reply from you to our just complaints, as expreffed in my note on the coincidence of the attitude taken by America with the hoftile fyftem of France. I cannot but be aware of the difficulties to which I fhould expofe myself in enter. ing into an explanation on any infulated paffage in it. I might, perhaps, by continued filence on your part, never afterwards have an opportunity of making further explanation, and you are well aware how frequently points taken unconnected with what precedes or follows them are liable to mifconftruction.

But, fir, a reafon paramount to every other, for my not committing myself to an explanation on any fingle topic, without the difcuffion between us were to be continued, is the publication of the highly important declaration of his royal highness, the prince regent, to which I had the honor to allude in my note to you of this morning. You will there find ftated, in as explicit and authentic a manner as language can convey, the grounds upon which his majefty's orders in council will be revoked. I cannot, it is true, as yet, refer you officially to this document, but I may now be in the expectation of receiving it in a formal shape, within a very few days, and together with it every explanation poffible which you may require.

I have the honor, &c.

AUG. J. FOSTER.

MR. MONROE TO MR. FOSTER.

Department of State, June 6, 1812. SIR-I had the honor to receive your letter of the 4th inst. The receipt of that of May 30th has already been acknowledged. As these letters relate to the same object, the orders in council, I shall take both into view in this reply.