te and enforce against neutrals a restriction of trade which it
confessed to be without sanction in law, and justified only upon the
plea of necessary retaliation, imposed by the unwarrantable course of
the French Emperor. These later proceedings, known historically as the
Orders in Council,[1] by their enormity dwarfed all previous causes of
complaint, and with the question of impressment constituted the vital
and irreconcilable body of dissent which dragged the two states into
armed collision. Undoubtedly, other matters of difficulty arose from
time to time, and were productive of dispute; but either they were of
comparatively trivial importance, easily settled by ordinary
diplomatic methods, or there was not at bottom any vital difference as
to principle, but only as to the method of adjustment. For instance,
in the flagrant and unpardonable outrage of taking men by force from
the United States frigate "Chesapeake," the British Government,
although permitted by the American to spin out discussion over a
period of four years, did not pretend to sustain the act itself; the
act, that is, of searching a neutral ship of war. Whatever the motive
of the Ministry in postponing redress, their pretexts turned upon
points of detail, accessory to the main transaction, or upon the
subsequent course of the United States Government, which showed
conscious weakness by taking hasty, pettish half-measures; instead of
abstaining from immediate action, and instructing its minister to
present an ultimatum, if satisfaction were shirked.

In the two causes of the war which have been specified, the difference
was fundamental. Whichever was right, the question at stake was in
each case one of principle, and of necessity. Great Britain never
claimed to impress American seamen; but she did assert that her
native-born subjects could never change their allegiance, that she had
an inalienable right to their service, and to seize them wherever
found, except within foreign territory. From an admitted premise, that
the open sea is common to all nations, she deduced a common
jurisdiction, in virtue of which she arrested her vagrant seamen. This
argument of right was reinforced by a paramount necessity. In a life
and death struggle with an implacable enemy, Great Britain with
difficulty could keep her fleet manned at all; even with indifferent
material. The deterioration in quality of her ships' companies was
notorious; and it was notorious also that