principle from the trade, now carried on between the United States and the British ports in Europe. In both, the privilege, claimed for the American vessel, must be founded on reason, equal rights and common justice, and the attempt in either, to confine the carrying of the articles, sold or exchanged, to British vessels, is nothing less than an endeavour to make our productions tributary to the growth and protection of British navigation, at the expense of our own, and should be opposed by every consideration of interest, of honour, and of safety.

"But if the principle assumed by Mr. Canning, is unsound, the application of this principle is not less injurious. For more than thirty years we have been admitted to this trade. The terms of admission, more or less liberal at different periods of our history, have, during this time, been the subject of amicable negotiation. The professed object of both governments has been to place it upon a footing of liberal reciprocity, and the only question in all the negotiations for the last ten years has been-what are the terms, which would be equal and reciprocal? During this long interval, thousands of our citizens, confiding in the continuance of a trade, believed to be necessary to the one, and beneficial to the other, and anticipating a speedy termination of differences, arising from points of a secondary importance, have embarked their capital in its prosecution. In the midst, however, of a suspended negotiation, at the very moment, when a new appointed minister was on his way, charged with instructions to terminate this controversy, on the terms proposed by Great Britain herself, without notice to our government, and without being anticipated by our citizens, a British order is issued, closing the West India ports against American vessels, at the same time, they are opened to the vessels of other powers. Our citizens are suddenly thrown out of employments, into which they were seduced by the pacific relations of the two countries, and are compelled at a loss, which none but merchants can understand, to direct their capital and their enterprise to new pursuits. There was nothing in the intercourse between the two countries, nothing in the liberal views, which were previously professed,-nothing in the common interest, by which, at the present period, the United States and England should be closely united, to justify so unexpected and so unjust a measure. Since, however, this measure has been adopted, it becomes our duty to meet it."

In this whole negotiation the United States had this object in view. To obtain an admission, as in the ports of the mother country in Europe-to have their vessels and cargoes subject to no higher duties, than those of the mother country and the colonies themselves, and, on leaving the islands, to have permission to go to any part of the world.

The British sought to confine America to a direct trade, to obtain for the vessels of the mother country the chance of a double freight, and to protect the productions and the navigation of the North American colonies.

If these objects are compared, it will, at once, be seen how extremely difficult any arrangement becomes.*

* The direct trade, being forbidden by statute and orders in council, has become a circuitous one, the colonial possessions of other European powers being employed, as places either of depot or transfer. This necessarily adds to the cost of freight, though it may not diminish the amount of the business. The trade may go to the Spanish islands, paying a duty of two per cent. for the benefit of drawback, and to the Danish and Swedish islands, under treaties lately concluded, without any charge.

СНАРТER XIII.

NEGOTIATIONS WITH BARBARY POWERS.

Barbary powers no longer formidable-Mediterranean always subject to piracies-Remarkable sea-Celebrated in all ages-Power of corsairs diminished-Once very great-No proper diplomatic intercourse-Regencies dependent in a degree on Porte-Morocco independent-Before Revolution trade protected by England- Trade considerable-American vessels taken by Algerines in '85-Slavery mild in the East-Slaves article of traffic-Government attentive to trade, but poor and weak-Different modes of dealing with Corsairs-Tribute-Force-Treaty with Morocco-Suffered little from that state-Algiers, prince of pirates-Piracy, monopoly of government-Often bombarded—To little purpose-Rates of ransom-Government too poor to pay-Captives long detained-Mathurins-Affair not honourable to this country—Indebted to Corsairs for navy— Treaty-Very expensive-Frigate Washington carries Algerine ambassador to Constantinople-Algiers only country that ever declared war against United States-War of 1812-Unlucky time for DeySquadron sent to Algiers-Makes treaty and abolishes tribute-Tripoli-Navy first distinguished there-Treaty-Expedition of Eaton -Pashaw Hamet-Ill used-Treaty made by Lear-Too hastyArticle never communicated to government-Davis receives Hamet's family-Tunis-Near Carthage-Remarks respecting Turks-Ruins in East more interesting than in Europe-Regencies, but one want-Money-System in regard to Corsairs honourable to government and navy.

THE trade of the country being no longer exposed to molestation, the Barbary powers have ceased to awaken alarm, even to attract attention. But the early transactions of this people with the piratical governments of that coast merit any other appellation than honourable, as our

commerce enjoyed any other advantage than security. To that class of measures, the government from weakness has been compelled to pass over in silence, or to trust to time and accidents, or to a chaffering, hesitating policy for relief or redress, belongs the intercourse with the Corsair states. We now reflect on them with composure, only from a deep conviction, that the condition of things in this country left unhappily in most cases, neither choice nor remedy.

The Mediterranean, the most remarkable sea on the surface of the globe, is not the less so for the states, by which it is enclosed. On one border, we find the most ancient, on another the most polished people, of which history has left us any traces, and on the rich and beautiful territory, that projects far across it, stood the deep foundations of the most powerful as well as most extensive empire of antiquity. On the other hand, the shores of this sea have, from the earliest times, furnished an ample and lucrative commerce to the less fortunate nations, placed beyond the pillars of Hercules. Still, as if to lend more effect and relief to these surprising advantages, the bays and islands of the Mediterranean have, in all ages, been vexed, to an extreme degree, by pirates and freebooters. No scenes are more celebrated in poetry, modern or ancient ;-none possess a beauty of a milder and more picturesque kind than the haunts and resorts of these corsairs, where, indeed, may be traced the track of the hero of more than one epic. At periods when nations, inhabiting those shores, have been most polished or powerful, piracies have not less existed, though it may be observed, they abounded in proportion to the corrupt factions and disorganized state of the population along its borders. The expedition of the great Pompey against the pirates was not only one of the most considerable armaments, ever equipped by Rome, but the undertaking, itself, is accounted by the biographer of that celebrated man, among his most conspicuous achievements.

We can only say, that the piracies of the Mediterranean, never entirely subdued, though perpetually assailed, are one of those moral phenomena, (of which a great many certainly

may be found) as extraordinary and quite as unaccountable by any process of reasoning or course of facts in relation to human faculties or passions, as the existence of Grecian temples on one of its shores and Egyptian on the other. For nearly half a century, Europe has occupied itself with the extermination of a slave trade, on the west coast of Africa, only worse because more extensive, than that which prevails on the north. But as to the Barbary corsairs, it seems now to be understood, that each nation shall provide, in that particular, for its own security as in any other case, solely, of a commercial nature. The memorials and projects for their annihilation presented to the Congress of Vienna by the knights of Malta and Sir Sydney Smith, were both received with the hand of the same courtier, and speedily laid on the same cold shelf.

But, notwithstanding these untoward circumstances, it is no doubt true, the power of the corsairs has sensibly diminished. It appears from history, that in the 17th century they were extremely formidable. We shall probably, by and by, see them all exterminated, not by force, a process uncertain and generally accompanied by a reaction in some other quarter, but by the progress of commerce and the arts. The territories, where they are now established in a sort of rude cantonment, are generally fertile,-at the head of the continent of Africa, within sight of Europe, and so valuable, that they will become the abode of a civilized race of men. That operation is already commenced, partially, in Egypt, and it will probably spread along the whole of the Barbary coast, when the Turkish encampment is moved across the Thracian Bosphorus and Greece, the Morea and the islands purified and thoroughly cleansed of their present profligate population. From these sources the pirates of Morocco* and the Regencies are principally recruited.

In treating this subject, we are somewhat at a loss to select an appropriate name to bestow on the relations with

* This word is generally written Morocco, though we believe the proper mode is Marocco,—see Jackson's work on that Empire.