touched at ports in England on their way to continental ports, some of them having done so only through stress of weather. To recompense the losses thus sustained, the Americans claimed from the French government eighty millions of francs, a demand which proved so serious a cause of dispute as almost to embroil the two countries in war.
But the captures by the English of American merchant vessels in the same period amounted to seven hundred and forty-five, and of those taken before the issue of the Orders in Council two hundred and forty-three were condemned, one hundred and fifty acquitted, and eighty-eight released; while out of the number subsequently taken two hundred were condemned, one hundred and ninety-one acquitted, and ninety-three restored to their owners.
Complaints of the Americans against the French. America, had she had the power, would undoubtedly have resented by force of arms many of these captures; but between two such belligerents she was helpless, and had to submit, though not altogether in silence, to proceedings against her shipowners, too frequently as unjust as they were unjustifiable. While the rigorous enforcement of the right of search on the part of the English, and the decrees of the French excluding from their ports every neutral vessel which had English goods on board, or had touched at any of the ports of that country, remained in force, it was impossible for the shipowners of the United States of America to carry on an oversea trade with any prospect of success. French cruisers, scattered over the seas, with orders to sink or burn any ship which might reveal their route to the English (who, with all their naval force, could not
