s duly communicated to the two states concerned, by
the United States ministers there resident. Great Britain was informed
that not only the Orders in Council, but the blockade of May,
1806,[316] were included among the edicts affecting American commerce,
the repeal of which was expected, as injurious to that commerce.
France was told that this demand would be made upon her rival;[317]
but that it was also the purpose of the President not to give the law
effect favorable to herself, by publishing a proclamation, if the late
seizures of the property of citizens of the United States had been
followed by absolute confiscation, and restoration were finally
refused.[318] This referred not to the Rambouillet Decree, as yet
unknown in America, but to the previous seizures upon various
pretexts, mentioned above by Armstrong. Ultimately this purpose was
not adhered to; but the Emperor was attentive to the President's
intimation that "by putting in force, agreeably to the terms of this
statute, the non-intercourse against Great Britain, the very species
of resistance would be made which France has constantly been
representing as most efficacious."[319] Thus, the co-operation of
America to the Continental System was no longer asked, but offered.

The Emperor did not wait even for information by the usual official
channels. By some unexplained delay, Armstrong's first knowledge was
through a copy of the Gazette of the United States containing the Act,
which he at once transmitted to Champagny, who replied August 5,
1810.[320] His Majesty wished that the acts of the United States
Government could be more promptly communicated; not till very lately
had he heard of the Non-Intercourse,--a statement which Armstrong
promptly denied, referring Champagny to the archives of his own
department.[321] In view of the Act of May 1, the Emperor's decision
was announced in a paragraph of the same letter, in the following
words:

In this new state of things I am authorized to declare to you,
Sir, that the Decrees of Berlin and Milan are revoked, and that
after the first of November they will cease to have effect; it
being understood that, in consequence of this declaration, the
English shall revoke their Orders in Council, and renounce the
new principles of blockade, which they have wished to establish;
or that the United States, conformably to the Act which you have
just communicated, shall cause their rights to