ange. The licensed monopolists paid handsomely
for their privilege, not only in the sums which they publicly turned
over, but in those which lined the pockets of unscrupulous ministers
like Fouche, who winked at great irregularities not contemplated by
the immunities secured from Napoleon.

An evasion of the British orders in council analogous to that of the
French decrees was extensively practised, and licenses to neutral
traders were also issued by the English government. But it practised
more discretion, and the regulation of the extensive commerce which
resulted was not attended by those court and private scandals so rife
in France. The worst feature of the English procedure was its adoption
of the so-called "neutralization" system. Dutch, French, and Spanish
trading vessels had long been provided by their owners with forged
papers certifying a neutral origin, generally Prussian. To these both
captains and crews swore without compunction when searched by British
cruisers. This system England made her own, issuing not merely to
real, but also to sham neutrals, licenses which insured them against
search when laden with wares for or from English ports. The firms
which engaged in the trade--and after the removal of the
non-intercourse restrictions many of them were American--compounded
morality with legality, considering themselves perfectly reputable,
even though they continued to furnish "simulated papers"--that is,
prepared forgeries--to their ships as part of the regular outfit.

Such immoralities, inequalities, and absurdities were the necessary
consequence of a fight for the means of subsistence between two
combatants one of which had no hands and the other no feet. So
extensive was the traffic, however, that although England had found it
necessary, in consequence of the Spanish rebellion, to restrict her
paper blockade to the coasts of Holland, France, and northern Italy,
she nevertheless doubled her importations of naval stores during the
season of 1808, while the prices of wool, silk, and colonial wares
gave temporary promise of a revival of manufactures. As long as
Napoleon's energy was elsewhere engaged, the ubiquity of English
war-ships on the high seas rendered the use of "simulated papers"
inordinately profitable; and even after he began to give his undivided
attention to policing the harbors and guarding the coast-line, it
continued to be fairly so. It must further be remembered that in the
treaty which