Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/267

 The national privileges of trade were by it confined to ships built in America and belonging to and commanded by citizens of that country on the 16th of May, 1789, and continually thereafter, or which had been taken and condemned as prizes in war, or forfeited for a breach of the United States laws. Few nations have asserted the rights of neutral ships with greater energy than the people of the United States; and these rights could not have been enforced except by a system of registration. But it is superfluous to waste time in asserting the advantages of registration, which, in all cases where it is honestly performed, may be deemed one of the most salutary regulations introduced by civilisation and law, and one, too, of material value for the repression of crime and piracy.

On 26th of September, 1786, a treaty of commerce and navigation between Great Britain and France was concluded, whereby perfect freedom of navigation was mutually conceded; but before the expiration of twelve years, the stipulated period of its existence, one of the greatest political convulsions of modern times had overthrown the dynasty of the Bourbons, and France and England were again plunged into a more deadly war than had ever before been waged by these ancient and inveterate foes. England also formed treaties with Spain, Prussia, and Holland, and