Island,--at
the mouth of the St. Mary's River, just outside the Florida
boundary,--and on the north Halifax, and Canada in general, had become
ports of deposit for American products, whence they were conveyed in
British ships to Great Britain and her dependencies, to which the Act
forbade American vessels to go. The effect was to give the carrying of
American products to British shipping, in precise conformity with the
astute provisions of the Navigation Acts. British markets were reached
by a broken voyage, the long leg of which, from Amelia and Halifax to
Europe and elsewhere, was taken by British navigation. It was stated
that there were at a given moment one hundred British vessels at
Amelia,[309] the shores of which were encumbered with American goods
awaiting such transportation. The freight from the American ports to
Amelia averaged a cent a pound, from Amelia to England eight
cents;[310] the latter amount going to British pockets, the former to
Americans who were debarred from full transatlantic freight by the
prohibitions of the Non-Intercourse Act. The absence of competition
necessarily raised the prices obtainable by the British shipper, and
this, together with the additional cost of transshipment and delays,
attendant upon a broken voyage, fell upon the American agriculturist,
whose goods commanded just so much less at their place of origin. The
measure was even ingeniously malaprop, considered from the point of
view of its purpose towards Great Britain, whether retaliatory or
coercive. Upon France its effect was trivial, in any aspect. There was
no French navigation, and the Orders in Council left little chance for
American vessels to reach French ports.

All agreed that the Non-Intercourse Act must go; the difficulty was to
find a substitute which should not confessedly abandon the whole
system of commercial restrictions, idealized by the party in power,
but from which it was being driven foot by foot. A first measure
proposed was to institute a Navigation Act, borrowed in broad outline
from that of Great Britain, but in operation applied only to that
nation and France, in retaliation for their injurious edicts.[311]
Open intercourse with the whole world should be restored; but British
and French merchant ships, as well as vessels of war, should be
excluded from American harbors. British and French products could be
imported only in vessels owned wholly by American citizens; and after
April 15, 1810, coul