APPENDIX.

No. I.

French Decree of November 21, 1806.

Article 1. The British Isles are declared in a state of blockade.

2. All trade and all correspondence, with the British Isles are prohibited.

Consequently, all letters or packets that are addressed to England, or to Englishmen, or which are written in the English language, shall not henceforth be forwarded by post, but shall be seized.

3. Every individual English subject, of whatever rank or condition, who shall be found in any country occupied by our troops, or the troops of our allies, shall be considered as a prisoner of war.

4. Every magazine, every kind of merchandise, every species of property, be it what it may, which belongs to an English subject, shall be considered as lawful prize,

5. Trade in English merchandise is prohibited; and all merchandise that belongs to England, or that is the produce of her manufactures or colonies, is declared lawful prize.

6. A moiety of the produce of the confiscated property, which, by the foregoing articles, is declared lawful prize, shall be appropriated to the merchants, to indemnify them for the loss they have sustained

from the capture of their merchant vessels by English cruizers.

7. No ship which comes direct from England, or the English colonies, or which shall have been theirs, after the publication of the present decree, shall be permitted to enter any of our harbours*.

8. Every ship trading by means of a false declaration, in contravention of the above-mentioned regulations, shall be detained, and the ship and lading shall be confiscated, as if they were English property.

9. Qur Tribunal des Prises at Paris is invested with the power of definitively deciding all questions which may arise within our empire, or in the countries occupied by the French armies, in respect to the execution of our present decree. Our Tribunal des Prises at Milan is invested with the power of definitively deciding such questions as may arise within the limits of our kingdom of Italy.

10. The communication of the present decree shall be made by our Minister of Foreign Relations to the Kings of Spain, Naples, Holland, and Etruria, and to our other allies, whose subjects, are, as well as our own, the victims of the injustice and barbarism of the English maritime code.

11. Our ministers of foreign relations, of war, marine, finance, and police, and our director general of the posts, are, in their respective departments charged with the execution of our present decree.

*This article gives no power whatever to seize, even ships entering French harbours from England direct; much less is seizure on the voyage authorized.

No. II.

Translation of an Official Note from M. Decres, the French Minister of Marine, to General Armstrong, envoy of the United States of America.

Paris, 24th Oct. 1806.

I hasten to reply to the note which you did me the honour to communicate on the 20th of this month.

I am of opinion that the Imperial decree of Nov. 21, does not in its present shape alter the regulations now in force in France on the subject of neutral navigation, nor consequently affect the convention of Sept. 30, 1801, with the United States.

But although by this answer I have fully resolved the four questions submitted to me by your Excellency, I think I may add-1st. That as the declaration contained in the first article of the decree, Nov. 21, does not alter the present French code of maritine capture, it is unnecessary to examine what construction, restriction, or extension may be given to this article.-2. That capture, contrary to the existing laws, will not accrue to the benefit of the captors.— 3. That an American vessel cannot be taken at sea, merely because she is sailing to or returning from an English port, and for this reason-that by the 7th article of the decree we can do no further in France than merely exclude from our ports, vessels coming from England or English colonies.-4. That as the regulations of articles 2 and 5 are in the nature of a

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general law, they apply to foreigners domiciliated in France, or in countries occupied by the troops of his Majesty the Emperor and King; but that it would be proper for your excellency to refer to the minister of exteria relations, as to that part which concerns the communication of citizens of the United States with England.

I beg your excellency to accept the assurance of my high consideration.

(Signed)

To the Minister Plenipotentiary

of the United States.

No. III.

Order of Council of 7th Jan, 1807.

DECRES.

Whereas the French government has issued certain orders, which, in violation of the usages of war, purport to prohibit the commerce of all neutral nations with his Majesty's dominions, and also to prevent such nations from trading with any other country, in any articles the growth, produce, or manufacture of his Majesty's dominions:

And whereas the said government has also taken up. on itself to declare all his Majesty's dominions to be in a state of blockade, at a time when the fleets of France and her allies are themselves confined within their own ports by the superior valour and discipline of the British navy :

And whereas such attempts on the part of the enemy would give to his Majesty an unquestionable right of retaliation, and would warrant his Majesty in enforc

ing the same prohibition of all commerce with France, which that power vainly hopes to effect against the commerce of his Majesty's subjects; a prohibition which the superiority of his Majesty's naval forces might enable him to support, by actually investing the ports and coasts of the enemy with numerous squadrons and cruizers, so as to make the entrance or approach thereto manifestly dangerous.

And whereas his Majesty, though unwilling to follow the example of his enemies, by proceeding to an extremity so distressing to all nations not engaged in the war, and carrying on their accustomed trade, yet feels himself bound by a due regard to the just defence of the rights and interests of his people, not to suffer such measures to be taken by the enemy, without taking some steps on his part to restrain this violence, and to retort upon them the evils of their own injustice:

His Majesty is therefore pleased, by and with the advice of his privy council, to order, and it is hereby ordered, that no vessel shall be permitted to trade from one port to another, both which ports shall belong to or be in the possession of France or her allies, or shall be so far under their control as that British vessels may not freely trade thereat: And the commanders of his Majesty's ships of war and privateers shall be, and are hereby instructed to warn every neutral vessel coming from any such port, and destined to another such port, to discontinue her voyage, and not to proceed to any such port; and any vessel