Prussian colours, so that before many weeks had elapsed four hundred of its merchant vessels were laid up in the harbours of Great Britain.
Berlin Decree, Nov. 10; These stringent measures were the forerunners of Napoleon's famous decrees.[1] The redoubtable Berlin decree issued at that city on the 10th of November, 1806, was meant, we must presume, to be only applicable to the countries actually occupied by his armies, including France, Holland, Spain, Italy, and the whole of Germany, although it declared the British Islands to be in a state of blockade.
Its terms. This extraordinary document set forth that England did not admit the right of nations as universally acknowledged by all civilised peoples; that she declared as an enemy every individual belonging to an enemy's state, and in consequence made prisoners of war, not only of the crews of armed but also of merchant vessels, and of even their supercargoes; that she applied to merchant vessels and to articles of commerce, the property of private individuals, the right of capture; that she declared ports unfortified, and harbours and mouths of rivers to which she had not sent a single vessel of war, to be
- ↑ France asserted, and America seems to have admitted that the first departure from the Law of Nations was this Act of Mr. Fox's Administration, and that this Act led to the Berlin Decree; but this is a pretence (see 'Key to Orders in Council,' p. 1). It is worth while to give briefly here the dates and order of these different decrees, etc. (1.) Mr. Fox's Order for blockade of French coast, April 8, 1806. (2.) Berlin Decree, Nov. 10, 1806 (recapitulated, Nov. 24, 1806). (3.) Lord Grey's Order in Council, Jan. 7, 1807. (4.) Orders in Council of Nov. 11, 1807, by the Portland administration. (5.) Milan Decree, Dec. 17, 1807. (6.) Bayonne Decree, April 17, 1808. (7.) Rambouillet Decree, March 23, 1810. (8.) Fontainebleau Decree, March 23, 1810. The Bayonne and Rambouillet Decrees were those most directly issued against the Americans.
