dmitted into any of his ports
without a _certification of origin_; that is, of the nature of the goods
they carried, and that no part of these was English. In consequence of
these Decrees, the English commerce, during the months of August,
September, and October, 1807--that part of the year in which the Berlin
Decree of November, 1806, was carried into full effect--was not only
greatly cramped, but lay prostrated on the ground, and motionless,
before a protecting and self-defensive system was adopted by our Orders
in Council."[178]

The British Orders in Council were dated January 7th, 1807, and were a
measure of retaliation for the protection of British commerce in
response to Napoleon's Berlin Decree of the 21st of November, 1806. By
these Orders in Council, "all trade to France or her dependencies was
strictly prohibited; all vessels, of whatever nation, which ventured to
engage in this trade were declared liable to seizure, and France and her
dependencies were thus reduced to that state of blockade with which she
had vainly threatened the British islands. The Orders in Council
admitted but of one exception to this general blockade of the French
empire. The French had declared all vessels liable to seizure which had
touched at a British port; the Orders in Council, to counteract this
provision, declared, on the other hand, that only such ships as were in
that situation should be permitted to sail for France. Thus did the
utter extinction of the foreign trade of France result as a natural
consequence of the very measures of her own Government; measures which
no despotism, how ignorant soever, would have ventured to adopt, had it
not trusted to a power which effectually silenced all popular
opinion."[179]

As France was the aggressor upon the rights of neutrals by the Berlin
Decree, and as the Orders in Council were a defensive retaliation upon
France for her attempt to destroy English commerce, the American
Government should have first remonstrated with France and demanded
reparation; but this was not the case; the outcry of the Madison
partizans was against England alone. It is true some grumbling words
were uttered by some parties against the policy and acts of the French
Government; but mere words to save appearances, not followed up by any
acts; for by a collusion between Napoleon and Madison, it was understood
that the Articles of the Berlin Decree were not intended to apply to
ships of the United States--would