ove so far as it might be practicable all
causes of future variance.

It having been stipulated by the seventh article of the convention of
navigation and commerce which was concluded on the 24th of June, 1822,
between the United States and France, that the said convention should
continue in force for two years from the 1st of October of that year,
and for an indefinite term afterwards, unless one of the parties should
declare its intention to renounce it, in which event it should cease
to operate at the end of six months from such declaration, and no
such intention having been announced, the convention having been
found advantageous to both parties, it has since remained, and still
remains, in force. At the time when that convention was concluded many
interesting subjects were left unsettled, and particularly our claim to
indemnity for spoliations which were committed on our commerce in the
late wars. For these interests and claims it was in the contemplation
of the parties to make provision at a subsequent day by a more
comprehensive and definitive treaty. The object has been duly attended
to since by the Executive, but as yet it has not been accomplished. It
is hoped that a favorable opportunity will present itself for opening
a negotiation which may embrace and arrange all existing differences
and every other concern in which they have a common interest upon the
accession of the present King of France, an event which has occurred
since the close of the last session of Congress.

With Great Britain our commercial intercourse rests on the same footing
that it did at the last session. By the convention of 1815 the commerce
between the United States and the British dominions in Europe and the
East Indies was arranged on a principle of reciprocity. That convention
was confirmed and continued in force, with slight exceptions, by a
subsequent treaty for the term of ten years from the 20th of October,
1818, the date of the latter. The trade with the British colonies in the
West Indies has not as yet been arranged, by treaty or otherwise, to our
satisfaction. An approach to that result has been made by legislative
acts, whereby many serious impediments which had been raised by the
parties in defense of their respective claims were removed. An earnest
desire exists, and has been manifested on the part of this Government,
to place the commerce with the colonies, likewise, on a footing of
reciprocal advantage, and it is hoped