ance, and
his Spanish auxiliaries followed the example of his rapacity. The
Portuguese, indeed, were so oppressed by the French and Spanish, that
they everywhere cherished the intention of rising upon the invaders,
and they looked to England, whose flag was never out of sight of their
coasts, for aid in their extremity.

MILAN DECREE, ETC.

The British order in council of the 7th of January, prohibiting neutrals
from trading to any port in the possession or under the control of the
enemy not being efficient, additional orders were issued, on the 11th of
November, declaring every port from which England was excluded to be in
a state of blockade, and all trade in its produce illegal, and liable
therefore to be captured. The Americans were allowed still to trade
with the enemy's colonies for articles of their own consumption; but the
double restriction was imposed on their intercourse between France and
her colonies, of calling at a British port and paying a British duty.
To avoid the losses and hostilities apprehended from the measures of the
two great belligerent powers, the British council likewise laid a strict
embargo on all American vessels, by which they were prohibited from
leaving their ports, while the ships of all other nations were ordered
to quit the harbours of the United States, with or without cargoes, so
soon as they should receive notification of the act. These directions
were responded to by Napoleon, by his celebrated Milan decree, which
enacted "that all vessels entering a port of France after having touched
England should be seized and confiscated, with their cargoes, without
exception or distinction." This decree was succeeded by another on the
19th of December, which had more explicit reference to our late orders
in council, and which declared "that every neutral which submitted to
be searched by an English ship, or which paid any duty to the British
Government, should, in consequence, become liable to seizure, as a
lawful prize, by French ships of war." Neutral powers, as it has been
observed, were thus placed between two fires: if they entered a French
port without paying a duty on their cargoes in England, they were
subjected to capture by British cruizers; and if they touched at England
for that purpose, they became subject to confiscation in the ports of
France. The system, however, which Napoleon had adopted towards British
commerce, and which gave rise to these perplexities among natio