ere long receive
a favorable consideration.

The last friendly expedient has been resorted to for the decision of the
controversy with Great Britain relating to the northeastern boundary of
the United States. By an agreement with the British Government, carrying
into effect the provisions of the fifth article of the treaty of Ghent,
and the convention of 29th September, 1827, His Majesty the King of the
Netherlands has by common consent been selected as the umpire between
the parties. The proposal to him to accept the designation for the
performance of this friendly office will be made at an early day, and
the United States, relying upon the justice of their cause, will
cheerfully commit the arbitrament of it to a prince equally
distinguished for the independence of his spirit, his indefatigable
assiduity to the duties of his station, and his inflexible personal
probity.

Our commercial relations with Great Britain will deserve the serious
consideration of Congress and the exercise of a conciliatory and
forbearing spirit in the policy of both Governments. The state of them
has been materially changed by the act of Congress, passed at their last
session, in alteration of the several acts imposing duties on imports,
and by acts of more recent date of the British Parliament. The effect of
the interdiction of direct trade, commenced by Great Britain and
reciprocated by the United States, has been, as was to be foreseen, only
to substitute different channels for an exchange of commodities
indispensable to the colonies and profitable to a numerous class of our
fellow-citizens. The exports, the revenue, the navigation of the United
States have suffered no diminution by our exclusion from direct access
to the British colonies. The colonies pay more dearly for the
necessaries of life which their Government burdens with the charges of
double voyages, freight, insurance, and commission, and the profits of
our exports are somewhat impaired and more injuriously transferred from
one portion of our citizens to another. The resumption of this old and
otherwise exploded system of colonial exclusion has not secured to the
shipping interest of Great Britain the relief which, at the expense of
the distant colonies and of the United States, it was expected to
afford. Other measures have been resorted to more pointedly bearing upon
the navigation of the United States, and which, unless modified by the
construction given to the recent acts