ffered himself here to be
misled. Does England find inadequate the "manner" of the French
Revocation? he asked. "It is precisely that in which the orders of its
own Government, establishing, modifying, or removing blockades, are
usually proclaimed." But the Decree of Berlin was no mere proclamation
of a blockade. It had been proclaimed, in the Emperor's own name, a
fundamental law of the Empire, until England had abandoned certain
lines of action. This was policy against policy, to which the blockade
was incidental as a method. English blockades were announced and
withdrawn under identical forms of circular letter; but when an Order
in Council, as that of November, 1807, was modified, as in April,
1809, it was done by an Order in Council, not by a diplomatic letter.
In short, Champagny's utterance was the declaration of a fact; but
where was the fact itself?

Great Britain therefore refused to recognize the letter as a
revocation, and could not be persuaded that it was by the opinion of
the American authorities. Nor was the form alone inadequate; the terms
were ambiguous, and lent themselves to a construction which would
deprive her of all benefit from the alleged revocation. She had to
look to her own battle, which reached its utmost intensity in this
year 1810. Except the helpless Spanish and Portuguese insurgents, she
had not an open friend in Europe; while Napoleon, freed from all
opponents by the overthrow of Austria in 1809, had organized against
Great Britain and her feeble allies the most gigantic display of force
made in the peninsula since his own personal departure thence, nearly
two years before. The United States had plain sailing; so far as the
letter went, the Decrees were revoked, conditional on her executing
the law of May 1. But Great Britain must renounce the "new" principles
of blockade. What were these principles, pronounced new by the Decree?
They were, that unfortified ports, commercial harbors, might be
blockaded, as the United States a half century later strangled the
Southern Confederacy. Such blockades were lawful then and long before.
To yield this position would be to abandon rights upon which depended
the political value of Great Britain's maritime supremacy; yet unless
she did so the Berlin Decree remained in force against her. The
Decree was universal in application, not limited to the United States
commerce, towards which Champagny's letter undertook to relax it; and
British commerce wo