TO THE COMMISSIONERS PLENIPOTENTIARY OF THE UNITED STATES, &c. GENTLEMEN, Dover, Tuesday morning, 4 o'clock, 10th June, 1783. This moment landed;—as a boat is going over to Calais, the inclosed proclamation may possibly arrive new to you. To me it wears the aspect of one part of a commercial treaty. I shall not wonder should I see our friend D. Hartley in London this week. I purpose lodging there to-night. There and everywhere I shall be, as I am, your faithful however feeble aid, and obedient servant, HENRY LAURENS. At the Court at St. James's, the 6th of June, 1785. Present-the King's most Excellent Majesty in Council. Whereas by an Act of Parliament passed this Session, intituled, "An Act for preventing certain instruments from being required from ships belonging to the United States of America, and to give to his Majesty, for a limited time, certain powers for the better carrying on trade and commerce between the subjects of his Majesty's dominions and the inhabitants of the said United States," it is, among other things, enacted, that during the continuance of the said Act, it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty in Council, by order or orders to be issued and published from time to time, to give such directions and to make such regulations with respect to duties, drawbacks, or otherwise, for carrying on the trade and commerce between the people and territories belonging to the crown of Great Britain, and the people and territories of the said United States, as to his Majesty in Council shall appear most expedient and salutary, any law, usage, or custom, to the contrary notwithstanding : His Majesty doth therefore, by and with the advice of his privy council, hereby order and direct, that pitch, tar, turpentine, indigo, masts, yards, and bowsprits, being the growth or production of any of the United States of America, may (until further order) be imported directly from thence into any ports of this kingdom, either in British or American ships, by British subjects, or by any of the people inhabiting in and belonging to the said United States, or any of them; and that the articles above recited shall and may be entered and landed in any port of this kingdom upon payment of the same duties, as the same are or may be subject and liable to, if imported by British subjects in British ships from any British island or plantation in America, and no other, notwithstanding such pitch, tar, turpentine, indigo, masts, yards, and bowsprits, or the ships in which the same may be brought, may not be accompanied with the certificates or other documents heretofore required by law; and his Majesty is hereby further pleased, by and with the advice aforesaid, to order and direct that any tobacco, being the growth or production of any of the territories of the said United States of America, may likewise (until further order) be imported directly from thence, in manner above-mentioned, and may be landed in this kingdom, and, upon the importer paying down in ready money the duty commonly called the Old Subsidy, such tobacco may be warehoused under his Majesty's locks, upon the importer's own bond, for payment of all the farther duties due for such tobacco, within the time limited by law, according to the net weight and quantity of such tobacco, at the time it shall be so landed, with the same allowances for the payment, or such farther duties, and under the like restrictions and regulations in all other respects, not altered by this order, as such tobacco is and may be warehoused by virtue of any act or acts of parliament in force.And the right honorable the lords commissioners of his majesty's treasury, and the lords commissioners of the admiralty, are to give the necessary directions herein, as to them may respectively appertain. STEPH. COTTREL. D. HARTLEY, Esq. TO THE AMERICAN MINISTERS. Permit me to address the enclosed memorial to your excellencies, and to explain to you my reasons for so doing. It is because many consequences, now at great distance, and unforeseen by us, may arise between our two countries, perhaps from very minute and incidental transactions, which in the beginning may be imperceptible and unsuspected as to their future effects. Our respective territories are in vicinity, and therefore we must be inseparable. Great Britain, with the British power in America, is the only nation with whom by absolute necessity you must have the most intimate concerns, either of friendship or hostility. All other nations are 3000 miles distant from you. You may have political connexions with any of these distant nations, but with regard to Great Britain it must be so. Political intercourse and interests will obtrude themselves between our two countries, because they are the two great powers dividing the continent of North America. These matters are not to come into discussion between us now. They are of too much importance either to be involved or even glanced at, in any present transaction. Let every eventual principle be kept untouched until the two nations shall have recovered from the animosities of the war. Let them have a pacific interval to consider deliberately of their mutual and combined interests, and of their engage VOL. II. ments with other nations. Let us not, at the outset of a temporary convention, adopt the severe principle of reducing every transaction between the two countries to the footing of exact reciprocity alone. Such a principle would cast a gloom upon conciliatory projects. America is not restrained from any conciliation with Great Britain by any treaty with any other power. The principles of conciliation would be most desirable between Great Britain and America; and forbearance is the road to conciliation. There are all reasonable appearances of conciliatory dispositions on all sides, which may be perfected in time. Let us not therefore at such a moment as this, and without the most urgent necessity, establish a morose principle between us. If it were a decided point against amity and conciliation, it would be time enough to talk of partition and strict reciprocity. To presume in favor of conciliation, may help it forward; to presume against it, may destroy that conciliation which might otherwise have taken place. But in the present case there is more than reason to presume conciliation. I think myself happy that I have it in my power to assure you from authority, that it is the fundamen tal principle of the British councils to establish amity and confidence between Great Britain and the American states, as a succedaneum for the relation in which they formerly stood one to the other. The proof of this consists not in words, but in substantial facts. His Britannic majesty has been graciously pleased to send orders to his commanders in North America for the speedy and complete evacuation of all the territories of the United States. His majesty has given orders in council on the 14th of the last month, for the admission of American ships and cargoes into Great Britain; and on the 6th instant he has given further orders, permitting the importation from America, of several articles, which have A been usually considered as manufactures. He has likewise provided for the convenience of American merchants, who may wish to land tobacco in Great Britain for re-exportation, upon the same principle. Mr. Fox, the secretary of state corresponding with America, has moved for and received the leave of the house of commons, (nem. con.) to bring in a bill, that any American merchants importing rice into Great Britain, may, upon re-exportation, draw back the whole duty paid on its first importation. All these circumstances put together, undoubtedly form the most indisputable evidence of the disposition which prevails in the British councils to give every facility to the re-establishment of that intercourse which must be so beneficial to both nations. I am ordered to inform you that his majesty entirely approves of the plan of making a temporary convention for the purpose of restoring immediate intercourse and commerce, and more particularly for the purpose of putting off for a time, the decision of that important question, how far the British acts of navigation ought to be sacrificed to commercial considerations, drawn from the particular circumstances of the present crisis ; a question which will require much deliberation and very much inquiry before it can be determined. I am sure, gentlemen, you will see and admit the reasonableness of our proceeding in such a case with deliberation and discretion, more especially when these acts of prudence do not proceed from any motives of coolness or reserve towards you. In the mean time the temporary convention may proceed, upon principles of real and accommodating reciprocity. For instance, we agree to put you upon amore favorable footing than any other nation. We do not ask a rigid reciprocity for this, because we know by your present subsisting treaties, it is not in your power to give it to us. We desire only to be put upon the footing of other |