And in his recent despatch to Mr. Fox his Lordship further says:  “That the President might be assured that Great Britain would always respect the just claims of the United States.  That the British government made no pretension to interfere in any manner whatever, either by detention, visit, or search, with vessels of the United States, known or believed to be such, but that it still maintained, and would exercise when necessary, its own right to ascertain the genuineness of any flag which a suspected vessel might bear; that if, in the exercise of this right, either from involuntary error, or in spite of every precaution, loss or injury should be sustained, a prompt reparation would be afforded; but that it should entertain, for a single instant, the notion of abandoning the right itself, would be quite impossible.”

This, then, is the British claim, as asserted by her Majesty’s government.

In his remarks in the speech already referred to, in the House of Commons, the first minister of the crown said:  “There is nothing more distinct than the right of visit is from the right of search.  Search is a belligerent right, and not to be exercised in time of peace, except when it has been conceded by treaty.  The right of search extends not only to the vessel, but to the cargo also.  The right of visit is quite distinct from this, though the two are often unfounded.  The right of search, with respect to American vessels, we entirely and utterly disclaim; nay, more, if we knew that an American vessel were furnished with all the materials requisite for the slave-trade, if we knew that the decks were prepared to receive hundreds of human beings within a space in which life is almost impossible, still we should be bound to let that American vessel pass on.  But the right we claim is to know whether a vessel pretending to be American, and hoisting the American flag, be bona fide American.”

The President’s message is regarded as holding opinions in opposition to these.

The British government, then, supposes that the right of visit and the right of search are essentially distinct in their nature, and that this difference is well known and generally acknowledged; that the difference between them consists in their different objects and purposes:  one, the visit, having for its object nothing but to ascertain the nationality of the vessel; the other, the search, by an inquisition, not only into the nationality of the vessel, but the nature and object of her voyage, and the true ownership of her cargo.

The government of the United States, on the other hand, maintains that there is no such well-known and acknowledged, nor, indeed, any broad and generic difference between what has been usually called visit, and what has been usually called search; that the right of visit, to be effectual, must come, in the end, to include search; and thus to exercise, in peace, an authority which the law of nations only allows in times of war.