individuals, and to the impulse of private interest, the application of industry and capital, I am equally persuaded that in this, as in other cases, there are exceptions to the general rule, which do not impair the principle of it. Among these exceptions is the policy of encouraging domestic manufactures within certain limits, and in reference to certain articles.

Without entering into a detailed view of the subject, it may be remarked, that every prudent nation will wish to be independent of other nations for the necessary articles of food, of raiment, and of defence; and particular considerations applicable to the United States seem to strengthen the motives to this independence.

Besides the articles falling under the above description, there may be others, for manufacturing which natural advantages exist, which require temporary interpositions for bringing them into regular and successful activity.

When the fund of industry is acquired by emigrations from abroad, and not withdrawn or withheld from other domestic employments, the case speaks for itself.

I will only add, that among the articles of consumption and use, the preference in many cases is decided merely by fashion or by habits. As far as an equality, and still more where a real superiority, is found in the articles manufactured at home, all must be sensible that it is politic and patriotic to encourage a preference of them, as affording a more certain source of supply for every class, and a more certain market for the surplus products of the agricultural class.

With these sentiments, I beg you to make my acknowledgments for the mark of distinction conferred on me; and which I accept from a respect for the Society and for its objects, rather than from any hope of being useful as a member.

To yourself, Sir, I tender my friendly respects.

TO RICHARD RUSH.

MONTPELLIER, June 27, 1817.

DEAB SIR, I have received your two favors of the 18th and 20th iust. I am promised a visit from Mr. Jefferson the ensuing month, and shall not fail to communicate to him the one you note for that purpose.

I readily conceive that Mr. Correa may feel some conflict in his present position, between his two characters of philanthropist and Plenipotentiary; and that he may infer some indulgence towards the latter from a respect to the former. He ought not, however, to impose on you a conflict between this kind feeling in the Government and its self-respect. It is both illiberal and impolitic, and necessarily extorts the admonitions you so gently convey to him.

In assuming a guardianship of our character in Europe, he committed, to say the least, a marked indelicacy; and his avowed resort to the press as the medium of giving information to the public here was a still greater aberration. His regard for our national reputation, if sincere, might have been manifested in a less exceptionable mode than in an official conversation. And his consciousness of the wrongfulness of a direct communication to the people is betrayed by the flimsiness of his apology. A silly reason from a wise man is never the true one.

The British doctrine of blockades has given rise to error and irregularity in the practice of other nations. In strictness, the blockade notifies itself, and no other notification can be admitted by neutrals who understand their rights, as having any other effect than as a friendly caution against a probable danger. But even in this sense the notification ought to be to the Government, which may make the use of it deemed proper. This Government has never formally promulgated the blockades more than any other regulations of foreign Governments. The most that seems admissible in such cases is, to let the public be informally apprized of them, that individuals may not ignorantly incur just penalties. In one instance an answer was given by the Department of State to a notification of a British blockade

by Mr. Merry, which, according to my recollection, explained the sense in which it was received, and precluded the idea that anything short of an actual attempt to violate a legal blockade could subject neutral vessels to interruption on the high seas. Notwithstanding these views of the subject, I am not sure that foreign Consuls in our ports may not have addressed notifications to our Merchants through the newspapers. And it may be worth enquiry whether something of the sort was not done by Mr. Onis, perhaps, prior to his reception as public Minister.

It is to be regretted that any difficulties should have arisen with Portugal, the only recognized nation, besides ourselves, on this hemisphere; and particularly that the most enlightened and esteemed foreigner among us should be the pivot on which they turn. It is not the less necessary, however, to make these considerations, as you are making them, subordinate to the rights of our Country and the honor of its Government. As far as these will permit, conciliation can in no case be more properly intermingled.

May not the event at Pernambuco, if not caused by actual oppression, tend to give at the present moment an unfavorable turn to the sentiment of European Sovereigns in relation to the revolutionary scene in South America? The struggle of the Spanish part of it having the appearance of shaking off a foreign yoke, appeals merely to the interest and sympathy of those Sovereigns. That in the Brazils may be viewed by them as an attack on a domestic throne, and as adding an example in the New World to those which have inspired so much alarm in the Old.

TO GEORGE JOY.

MONTPELLIER, Aug. 15, 1817.

DEAR SIR,-I have received your several favors, the last bearing date the day of -, on the subject of your translation from Rotterdam to Amsterdam; and have expressed to the President the sentiments which my knowledge of your exertions

in the cause of our Country, and my friendly dispositions I have entertained towards you, suggested. He has been for a considerable period on a tour along our Eastern and Northern frontier, and will not receive my letter till he returns to Washington, which is expected to take place about the middle of September. I wish I could comply with your wish for an anticipation of the result of that and the communications through Mr. Adams. But not knowing the list from which the selection will be made, and which will probably be a long and respectable one, nor the precise light in which merits of different descriptions may present themselves to the mind of the President, I cannot venture to predict his decision. Should he, indeed, make an appointment without waiting for the previous sanction of the Senate, you will know nearly as soon as this will reach you.

I take this occasion to thank you for the various and valuable communications I had the pleasure of receiving from you during a period of my official duties, which prevented my acknowledging them. Your candour will, I trust, have rightly interpreted the omission, and preserved your disposition to accept assurances of my esteem and friendly respects.

TO PRESIDENT MONROE.

MONTPELLIER, August 22, 1817.

DEAR SIR,-Your favor of July 27, from Pittsburg, was duly received, and I am very glad to learn from it that the fatiguing scenes through which you have passed had not prevented some improvement in your health. The sequel of your journey will have been still more friendly to it, as affording a larger proportion of the salutary part of your exercise. I hope you will find an ample reward for all the inconveniences to which you have been subjected in the public benefit resulting from your tour. The harmony of sentiment so extensively manifested will give strength to the Administration at home, and command abroad additional respect for our Country and its institutions. The

little vagaries which have excited criticism, whether proceeding from the fervor of patriotism or from selfish views, are light in the scale against the consideration that an opportunity has been given and seized for a return to the national family of the prodigal part which had been seduced from it, and for such a commitment of the seducers themselves, that they cannot resume their opposition to the Government without a public demonstration that their conversion was inspired by the mere hope of sharing in the loaves and fishes.

You will readily conceive the reluctance with which I say any thing on the subject of candidates for office. But I cannot decline an expression of my good will toward Mr. W. Taylor, heretofore agent in St. Domingo, who wishes to be successor to Mr. Bourne, at Amsterdam. My opinion of him, as an intelligent man, is founded in some measure on my occasional interviews with him. Of his integrity and good dispositions generally, I have had satisfactory information from others. Of his official standing with the Government I may have less, but cannot have more, knowledge than you possess yourself. In naming Mr. Taylor, however, I must add that I do it not only without knowing the list of competitors before you, but with a reserve as to the pretensions of Mr. Joy, consul at Rotterdam, also desirous to be Mr. B.'s successor. I had a personal acquaintance with the latter gentleman many years ago, and have had a series of communications from him since his residence abroad, which have led me to regard him as a man of literary talents, and to know that he exerted them with a laborious fidelity to the rights and honor of his country during the critical periods which furnished the occasion. Mr. Adams can doubtless place before you fully the grounds on which the pretensions of Mr. J. rest.

You will learn from Mr. Cathcart himself that he has, with his family, been driven from Cadiz by the sterility of the Consulate there, and that he has an eye to domestic service. His worth appears to be generally acknowledged, and it is seconded by the sympathy awakened by a large and young family. But it is more easy to point at such cases than to suggest the mode