forest; and a greater
or less number of the residue, becoming in time naturalized citizens,
enter into the merchant service under the flag of their adopted country.

Now, my Lord, if war should break out between England and a European
power, can any thing be more unjust, any thing more irreconcilable to
the general sentiments of mankind, than that England should seek out
these persons, thus encouraged by her and compelled by their own
condition to leave their native homes, tear them away from their new
employments, their new political relations, and their domestic
connections, and force them to undergo the dangers and hardships of
military service for a country which has thus ceased to be their own
country? Certainly, certainly, my Lord, there can be but one answer to
this question. Is it not far more reasonable that England should either
prevent such emigration of her subjects, or that, if she encourage and
promote it, she should leave them, not to the embroilment of a double
and contradictory allegiance, but to their own voluntary choice, to form
such relations, political or social, as they see fit, in the country
where they are to find their bread, and to the laws and institutions of
which they are to look for defence and protection?

A question of such serious importance ought now to be put at rest. If
the United States give shelter and protection to those whom the policy
of England annually casts upon their shores,--if, by the benign
influences of their government and institutions, and by the happy
condition of the country, those emigrants become raised from poverty to
comfort, finding it easy even to become landholders, and being allowed
to partake in the enjoyment of all civil rights,--if all this may be
done, (and all this is done, under the countenance and encouragement of
England herself,) is it not high time that, yielding that which had its
origin in feudal ideas as inconsistent with the present state of
society, and especially with the intercourse and relations subsisting
between the Old World and the New, England should at length formally
disclaim all right to the services of such persons, and renounce all
control over their conduct?

But impressment is subject to objections of a much wider range. If it
could be justified in its application to those who are declared to be
its only objects, it still remains true that, in its exercise, it
touches the political rights of other governments, and endangers th