Berlin when he issued it.]

%253. Orders in Council, 1807.%--Great Britain felt that every time
Napoleon struck at her she must strike back at him, and in January,
1807, a new Order in Council forbade neutrals to trade from one European
port to another, if both were in the possession of France or her allies.
Finding it had no effect, she followed it up with another Order in
Council in November, 1807, which declared that every port on the face
of the earth from which for any reason British ships were excluded was
shut to neutrals, unless they first stopped at some British port and
obtained a license to trade.

%254. The Milan Decree, 1807.%--It was now Napoleon's turn to strike,
which he did in December, 1807, by issuing the Milan Decree.[1]
Thenceforth any ship that submitted to be searched by British cruisers
or took out a British license, or entered any port from which French
ships were excluded, was to be captured wherever found.

[Footnote 1: So called because he was in Milan at the time, and dated it
from that city.]

As a result of this series of French Decrees and British Orders in
Council,[2] the English took 194 of our ships, and the French almost
as many.

[Footnote 2: On the Orders in Council and French Decrees, read Adams's
_History of the United States_, Vol. III., Chap. 16; Vol. IV., Chaps. 4,
5, and 6; McMaster's _History_, Vol. III., pp. 219-223;
249-250; 272-274.]

%255. Jefferson's Policy; Non-importation Act.%--The policy by which
Jefferson proposed to meet this emergency consisted of three parts:

1. Lay up the frigates and defend our coast and harbors by a number of
small, swift-sailing craft, each carrying one gun in the stern. In time
of peace they were to be hauled up under sheds. In time of war they were
to be shoved into the water and manned by volunteers. Between 1806 and
1812, 176 of these gunboats were built.

2. Make a new treaty with Great Britain, because that made by Jay in
1794 was to expire in 1806. Under the instructions of Jefferson,
therefore, Monroe and Pinckney signed a new treaty in December, 1806.
But it said nothing about the impressment of our sailors, or about the
right of our ships to go where they pleased, and was so bad in general
that Jefferson would not even send it to the Senate.[3]

[Footnote 3: No treaty can become a law unless approved by the President
and two thirds of the Senate.]

3. The third part of his policy consisted in doing what we should call