Then came her paper
blockades, by which she might shut up the whole world without sending
a ship to sea, except to take all those sailing on it, as they must, of
course, be bound to some port. And these were followed by her orders of
council, forbidding every nation to go to the port of any other, without
coming first to some port of Great Britain, there paying a tribute to
her, regulated by the cargo, and taking from her a license to proceed to
the port of destination; which operation the vessel was to repeat with
the return cargo on its way home. According to these orders, we could
not send a vessel from St. Mary's to St. Augustine, distant six hour's
sail, on our own coast, without crossing the Atlantic four times, twice
with the outward cargo, and twice with the inward. She found this
too daring and outrageous for a single step, retracted as to certain
articles of commerce, but left it in force as to others which constitute
important branches of our exports. And finally, that her views may no
longer rest on inference, in a recent debate, her minister declared in
open parliament, that the object of the present war is a monopoly of
commerce.
In some of these atrocities, France kept pace with her fully in
speculative wrong, which her impotence only shortened in practical
execution. This was called retaliation by both; each charging the other
with the initiation of the outrage.
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