ged[344] during a year very critical
for the fortunes of that country, and in the event for Napoleon and
Europe. Upon his new mission Wellesley gave him a long letter of
instructions,[345] in which he dealt elaborately with the whole course
of events connected with the Orders in Council and Bonaparte's Decree,
especially as connected with America. In this occurs a concise and
lucid summary of the British policy, which is worth quoting. "From
this view of the origin of the Orders in Council, you will perceive
that the object of our system was not to crush the trade of the
continent, but to counteract an attempt to crush British trade; that
we have endeavored to permit the continent to receive as large a
portion of commerce as might be practicable through Great Britain, and
that all our subsequent regulations, and every modification of the
system, by new orders, or modes of granting or withholding licenses,
have been calculated for _the purpose of encouraging the trade of
neutrals through Great Britain_,[346] whenever such encouragement
might appear advantageous to the general interests of commerce and
consistent with the public safety of the nation,--the preservation of
which is the primary object of all national councils, and the
paramount duty of the Executive power."

In brief, the plea was that Bonaparte by armed constraint had forced
the continent into a league to destroy Great Britain through her
trade; that there was cause to fear these measures would succeed, if
not counteracted; that retaliation by similar measures was therefore
demanded by the safety of the state; and that the method adopted was
retaliation, so modified as to produce the least possible evil to
others concerned. It was admitted and deplored that prohibition of
direct trade with the ports of the league injuriously affected the
United States. That this was illegal, judged by the law of nations,
was also admitted; but it was justified by the natural right of
retaliation. Wellesley scouted the view, pertinaciously urged by the
American Government, that the exclusion of British commerce from
neutral continental ports by the Continental System was a mere
municipal regulation, which the United States could not resist.
Municipal regulation was merely the cloak, beneath which France
concealed her military coercion of states helpless against her policy.
"The pretext of municipal right, under which the violence of the enemy
is now exercised against neutra