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No wonder that under such circumstances the Americans set up the demand that "free ships should make free goods," which was echoed through the whole world at a later period. No fewer than six hundred American vessels were seized, or detained in English ports, under this order between the 6th of November, 1793, and the 28th of March, 1794, a proceeding which naturally excited much alarm among merchants connected with the United States, lest there should be an immediate rupture between the two countries. The American government took up the matter, and after having, on the 26th of March, 1794, laid an embargo for thirty days on all British merchant vessels in their ports, sent Mr. Jay as Envoy Extraordinary to London, in order to obtain redress. Upon this the English Order in Council was revoked, and friendly negotiations were entered into with the view of placing the maritime relations of the two countries upon a more satisfactory footing; the result being the conclusion, in 1794, of a treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, to which we shall hereafter more fully refer.

Although Mr. Jay, after the conclusion of this treaty, held out the flag of free trade, the Americans never acknowledged, for any lengthened period, his enlightened principles, but preferred following, in this respect, the example of the mother-country whose allegiance they had renounced; and, although admitting the vessels of all foreign nations to their ports, levied a tonnage duty on them higher than was paid by their own ships, with an additional ten per cent. on the duties payable on their cargoes.