recaution, loss or
injury should be sustained, a prompt reparation would be afforded; but
that it should entertain, for a single instant, the notion of abandoning
the right itself, would be quite impossible."

This, then, is the British claim, as asserted by her Majesty's
government.

In his remarks in the speech already referred to, in the House of
Commons, the first minister of the crown said: "There is nothing more
distinct than the right of visit is from the right of search. Search is
a belligerent right, and not to be exercised in time of peace, except
when it has been conceded by treaty. The right of search extends not
only to the vessel, but to the cargo also. The right of visit is quite
distinct from this, though the two are often unfounded. The right of
search, with respect to American vessels, we entirely and utterly
disclaim; nay, more, if we knew that an American vessel were furnished
with all the materials requisite for the slave-trade, if we knew that
the decks were prepared to receive hundreds of human beings within a
space in which life is almost impossible, still we should be bound to
let that American vessel pass on. But the right we claim is to know
whether a vessel pretending to be American, and hoisting the American
flag, be _bona fide_ American."

The President's message is regarded as holding opinions in opposition to
these.

The British government, then, supposes that the right of visit and the
right of search are essentially distinct in their nature, and that this
difference is well known and generally acknowledged; that the difference
between them consists in their different objects and purposes: one, the
visit, having for its object nothing but to ascertain the nationality of
the vessel; the other, the search, by an inquisition, not only into the
nationality of the vessel, but the nature and object of her voyage, and
the true ownership of her cargo.

The government of the United States, on the other hand, maintains that
there is no such well-known and acknowledged, nor, indeed, any broad and
generic difference between what has been usually called visit, and what
has been usually called search; that the right of visit, to be
effectual, must come, in the end, to include search; and thus to
exercise, in peace, an authority which the law of nations only allows in
times of war. If such well-known distinction exists, where are the
proofs of it? What writers of authority on public law, what
ad