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20 years before this, between 1809 and 1812, many irritating discussions had taken place between the two Governments relative to the abuses of so-called maritime rights on our side and fraudulent evasions of neutral obligations on the part of the Americans, and in all these discussions, which are to be found at length in the official correspondence with the American Government during those years, not one word appears concerning the right of search. The real irritating topic was our paper blockades, by which we practically prohibited all neutral trade; and what greatly aggravated the feeling of irritation on the part of the Americans, as distinctly stated by the American President, was an exception to this general prohibition which we made in favour of our own trade so that whilst forbidding neutrals to trade with our enemy we actually traded with him ourselves and enriched ourselves at the neutrals' expense. The Americans retaliated