leon, possessed neither colonies nor slave-trading vessels, and were therefore guiltless of all slave traffic.

It can be readily understood that this insane theory engendered in Stephen such a hatred of Napoleon, that he directed the whole force of his mind to devise some means of counteracting his attempts to injure the commerce of this country. Highly applauding the Whig Order of January 1807, as soon as his friend Mr Perceval became minister, he readily obtained his assent to a still more complete system of retaliation. With this view he framed the famous Order of November 1807, which brought our mercantile conflict, not with France only, but unhappily with America, to a crisis. He preluded his Order by a tract deservedly celebrated, and most justly admired, entitled 'War in Disguise, or the Frauds of the Neutral Flags.' It is impossible to speak too highly of this work, or to deny its signal success in making the nation for a time thoroughly believe in the justice and efficacy of his Orders in Council. This is not the time or place to discuss the merits or defects of this tract of Stephen's, or to refute

*

the arguments or expose the fallacies of the scheme that was supposed to be all-powerful in defeating not only the Berlin but the Milan Decree of Napoleon; suffice it to say that the Orders, coupled with the system of licences issued to permit certain vessels to pass, notwithstanding the Orders in Council, followed by the American Embargo and Non-importation Acts, which produced a suspension of all commerce with the United States, brought destruction upon British commerce, and caused the manufacturers of London, Hull,

* This Decree was issued at Milan on the 17th December 1807, and was intended to enforce more rigorously the Berlin Decree.

Manchester, and Liverpool to deluge Parliament with petitions against the policy of the Orders, and to tender evidence to prove the great injuries inflicted.

As counsel for the merchants, manufacturers, and traders, I was heard at the bar of both Houses, and produced an overwhelming body of evidence in support of the petitions. This began in the spring of 1808, but all attempts to move the ministers proved unavailing; and it was not till four years after that there appeared any hope of a more favourable result.

Throughout all the early part of 1812, I had been in constant correspondence with leading men in the manufacturing districts, not only on the state of trade and the distresses, but on the not ill-grounded apprehensions of a war with America, and the fears lest these combined evils might lead to acts of violence from those who considered the distress they were suffering from altogether due to the mischievous policy of the Government.

The following letter, which I wrote to one of the leading manufacturers, will more fully explain this state of things, and my opinion:

TO J. WALKER, ESQ.

"LONDON, March 6, 1812.

"SIR,—I am firmly persuaded that nothing is wanted to obtain such a change of measures as will relieve the present unexampled distresses of the manufacturing counties, but a firm and united representation of those distresses to Parliament, in temperate language and accompanied with peaceable conduct. By pursuing this course, I am very sanguine in the expectation that one of the greatest, if not the very greatest, evil which

can visit this country, a war with America, may be fortunately prevented. Should the present system be persisted in, I much fear that misfortune is at no great distance, and, when it arrives, no one can doubt how great an addition to our sufferings it will bring with it. There appears to me to be no other mode of proceeding, in order to resist the present ruinous system, than the one I have taken the liberty of recommending. It would be vain to expect any relief from applications to the Prince Regent, while his Royal Highness continues to give his confidence to those men whose measures, so obstinately persisted in, have brought the trade of the country into its present state, and who, resolved upon pursuing the same fatal policy, wholly regardless of its consequences, appear to have made up their minds to an American war, as no extravagant price to pay for their favourite system. The approaches to the throne, too, are now beset with unusual difficulties, since his Royal Highness has unhappily listened to those who advise him against being freely seen by his people; and, acting under the influence of such counsels, it should seem that the Prince is no longer so accessible to the distresses and complaints of his subjects as his own gracious inclinations might dispose him to be. On the other hand, it would be most calamitous if the people were to suffer those distresses to mislead them into any acts of violence— calamitous in every view, but, above all, for this reason, that the inevitable consequence of such illegal conduct must be the giving to the executive Government that accession of support which alone is wanting to enable the ministers to complete the mischief their measures have been working, and hurry us into a

rupture with our best customers and most natural allies, the free and English people of America. While, therefore, I dissuade you from any further attempts to seek redress at the foot of the throne as unavailing under the present circumstances, and while I most earnestly deprecate all proceedings that may either in themselves or in their consequences interfere with the public tranquillity, I would urge you with the same anxiety to come before Parliament; and I conceive that the earlier you do so, and with the greater unanimity, and the more extensive co-operation from other counties in similar circumstances, the better your chance will be, both of preventing the apprehended hostilities abroad, and of maintaining peace and good order in the bosom of our country.

"In the same spirit, I venture to express my hopes that at any meetings which may be held for the purpose of petitioning the Legislature, the greatest care will be taken to avoid all introduction of political topics unconnected with the serious matters which immediately press upon you. If any exception could be permitted to this remark, it might perhaps be found in the consideration which so naturally suggests itself, that those great and populous cities, among the first in the empire, which now labour under such unprecedented distresses from the measures of Government, and are about to seek relief from the House of Commons, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield, -are unfortunately left without any representatives in that branch of the Legislature. But this reflection, however material at any other time, ought, together with everything of a political nature, to be kept separate from your present objects. And I am confident that the worthy members who represent the

counties with which those towns are connected, will not be wanting in their endeavours to press your case upon the attention of Parliament.

"For myself, I can only say that my humble efforts shall never be grudged in co-operating with you for the attainment of your object. The usual professional avocations of this season oblige me now to leave town. But as soon as your petitions come before Parliament, I shall hold myself ready to return to my attendance in Parliament at the shortest notice; considering the support of your applications, in the present state of the country, as an engagement greatly paramount to every other. I have consulted with Mr Whitbread and other friends in both Houses of Parliament, whose judgment deserves a degree of confidence which I am far from reposing in my own, and their concurrence in opinion with me makes me the more decided in what I have now stated as an answer to the communication with which you honoured me.-I am, &c. "H. BROUGHAM.

"J. WALKER, Esq."

On the 3d of March 1812 I brought the whole question before the notice of the House of Commons, and moved for a select committee to inquire into the present state of the commerce and manufactures of the country with reference to the effects of the Orders in Council and the licence system. Opposed by Rose, who insisted that the Orders in Council were a measure of sound policy, and that if repealed we should open the trade of the whole world to France, I was warmly supported by Alexander Baring,* and as hotly opposed by Stephen, feebly by Canning, who only went so far

*Afterwards Lord Ashburton.