introduced it. This restored trade with France and England,
but declared that if either would withdraw its Decrees or Orders, the
United States would stop all trade with the other.

%260. Trickery of Napoleon.%--And now Napoleon came forward and
assured the American minister that the Berlin and Milan Decrees should
be recalled on November 1, 1810, provided the United States would
restore non-intercourse with England. To this Madison agreed, and on
November 1, 1810, issued a proclamation saying that unless Great Britain
should, before February 1, 1811, recall her Orders in Council, trade
with her should stop on that day. Great Britain did not recall her
Orders, and in February, 1811, we once more ceased to trade with her.

Trade with France was resumed on November 1, 1810, and of course a great
fleet of merchants went off to French ports. But they were no sooner
there than the villainy of Napoleon was revealed, for on December 25, by
general order, every American ship in the French ports was seized, and
$10,000,000 worth of American property was confiscated. He had not
recalled his Decrees, but pretended to do so in order to get the
American goods and provisions which he sorely needed.

It is surprising how patient the Americans of those days were. But their
patience as to Great Britain now gave out, and our minister at London
was recalled in 1811. This alarmed the British, who promptly began to
take steps to keep the peace, and offered to make amends for the
_Leopard-Chesapeake_ outrage which had occurred four years before (June,
1807). They agreed to replace the three American sailors on the deck of
the _Chesapeake_ and did so (June, 1812). But the day for peaceful
settlement was gone. The people were aroused and angry, and this feeling
showed itself in many ways.

%261. The President and the Little Belt.%--In the early part of May,
1811, a British frigate was cruising off the harbor of New York with her
name _Guerriere_ painted in large letters on her fore-topsail, and one
day her captain stopped an American vessel as it was about to enter New
York, and impressed a citizen of the United States. Three years earlier
this outrage would have been made the subject of a proclamation. Now,
the moment it was known at Washington, an order was sent to Captain
Rogers of the frigate _President_ to go to sea at once, search for the
_Guerriere_, and demand the delivery of the man, Rogers was only too
glad to go, and soon came i