ort of his enemies;
comprehending in this Order not only the ports of France, but those of
other nations, as, either in alliance with France, or subject to her
dominion, have, by measures of active offence or by the exclusion of
British ships, taken part in the present war."[184] These words
characterized the measure as strictly retaliatory. They implied that
the extra-legal action of the enemy would warrant extra-legal action
by Great Britain, but asserted expressly that the present step was
sanctioned by existing law,--"in such a manner only as is authorized
by the acknowledged principles of the law of nations." The prohibition
of coasting trade could be brought under the law of nations only by
invoking the Rule of 1756, forbidding neutrals to undertake for a
state at war employment denied to them in peace. Of this, coasting was
a precise instance; but to call the Rule an acknowledged principle of
the law of nations was an assumption peculiarly calculated to irritate
Madison, who had expended reams in refutation. He penned two careful
replies, logical, incisive, and showing the profound knowledge of the
subject which distinguished him; but in a time of political convulsion
he contended in vain against men who wore swords and thought their
country's existence imperilled.

The United States authorities argued by text and precedent. To the end
they persisted in shutting their eyes to the important fact,
recognized intuitively by Great Britain, that the Berlin Decree was no
isolated measure, to be discussed on its separate merits, but an
incident in an unprecedented political combination, already
sufficiently defined in tendency, which overturned the traditional
system of Europe. It destroyed the checks inherent in the balance of
power, concentrating the whole in the hands of Napoleon, to whom there
remained on the Continent only one valid counterweight, the Emperor of
Russia, whom he soon after contrived to lead into his scheme of
policy. The balance of power was thus reduced to the opposing scales
of Great Britain and France, and for five years so remained. The
Continental System, embracing all the rest of Europe, was arrayed
against Great Britain, and might well look to destroy her, if it could
command the support of the United States. Founded upon armed power, it
proposed by continuous exertion of the same means to undermine the
bases of British prosperity, and so to subvert the British Empire. The
enterprise was dis