Ordered, That a Committee of Ways and Means be appointed, pursuant to the standing rules and or. ders of the House;

And a committee was appointed of Mr. Eppes, Mr. W. Alston, Mr. Tallmadge, Mr. Montgomery; Mr. Bacon, Mr. Smilie and Mr. Root.

Ordered, That a Committee on the Public Lands be appointed, pursuant to the standing rules and orders of the House.

And a committee was appointed of Mr. Morrow, Mr. Goodwyn, Mr. Ely, Mr. Boyd, Mr. Howard Mr. Gold and Mr. Cobb.

Ordered, That a Committee of Revisal and Unfinished Business be appointed, pursuant to the stand ing rules and orders of the House;

And a committee was appointed of Mr. Southard, Mr. Shaw and Mr R. Jackson.

Ordered, That a Committee for the District of Columbia be appointed, pursuant to the standing rules and orders of the House;

And a committee was appointed of Mr. Love, Mr. Van Horn, Mr. L. J. Alston, Mr. Newbold, Mr. S. Smith, Mr. Taggart and Mr. Haven.

Ordered, That a Committee on Post offices and Post roads be appointed, pursuant to the standing rules and orders of the House;

And a committee was appointed of Mr. Rhea, (of Tennessee) Mr. Helms, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Desha, Mr. Stanford, Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Troup, Mr. Morrow, Mr. Davenport, Mr. Chittenden, Mr. Goldsborough, Mr. Whitehill, Mr. Potter, Mr. J. Smith, Mr. Upham and Mr. Wilson.

Ordered, That a Committee of Accounts be appointed, pursuant to the standing rules and orders of the House;

And a committee was appointed of Mr. Milnor, Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Turner.

The Speaker laid before the House a certificate of the election of Adam Seybert, to serve as a member

for the state of Pennsylvania, in the room of Benjamin Say, resigned, which was read, and together with the certificate of the election of Jonathan Jennings, the delegate from the territory of Indiana, ordered to be referred to the Committee of Elections.

The Speaker also laid before the House a memorial of the legislative council and house of representatives of the Indiana territory, stating that by certain acts of Congress, the number of menibers composing the legislature of that territory, was so deranged as to render it necessary to make a new apportionment of members of the said legislative council and house of representatives, which has been done; and praying the sanction of Congress to the apportionment afore. said.

The said memorial was read, and referred to Mr. Poindexter, Mr. Cochran, Mr. Brackenridge, Mr. Witherspoon, and Mr. Jennings, with leave to report by bill or otherwise.

Mr. Taylor presented a petition of Thomas Galphin, of the state of South Carolina, only surviving partner of the late firm of Galphins, Holmes, and Co. traders with the Creek Indians, and executor of the will of his father, praying that an act may be passed to compel certain persons resident in the Creek nation of Indians, to pay the amount respectively owing by them to the estate of the father of the petitioner and to the firm aforesaid.

The said petition was read, and referred to Mr. Taylor, Mr Dana, Mr. Sammons, Mr. Crawford, and Mr. Chamberlin, (of Vermont) to examine the matter thereof, and report the same with their opinion thereupon to the House.

On motion of Mr. Johnson,

Ordered, That the petition of Betsey B. Steele, (late Betsey B. Bealle) and Robert Bealle, presented on the twenty-ninth of November, one thousand eight hundred and eight, be referred to the Committee of Claims.

Mr. Goodwyn, from the joint committee appointed to wait on the President of the United States, reported, that the committee had performed the service assigned to them, and that the President signified that he would make a communication, in writing, to the two Houses of Congress, to morrow at twelve o'clock.

And then the House adjourned until to-morrow morning, eleven o'clock.

WEDNESDAY, November 29, 1809.

Several other members, to wit: from New-York, John Nicholson; from Maryland, John Brown; and from Virginia, Walter Jones, appeared and took their seats in the House.

On motion of Mr. Turner,

Ordered, That the petition of Ezra Weston, presented on the twenty-first of December, one thousand eight hundred and four, and the petition of the select. men of the town of Scituate, and sundry merchants and underwriters of Boston, in Massachusetts, presented on the twenty-fifth of November, one thousand eight hundred and eight, be referred to the Committee of Commerce and Manufactures.

Mr. Quincy presented a petition of the Boston Marine Society, signed by their Committee, praying that a sum of money, not exceeding three thousand five hundred dollars, may be appropriated for the erection of a column of stone on a spit of sand near the entrance of the harbor of Boston, for the safety and convenience of vessels entering the said harbor. The said petition was read and referred to the Committee of Commerce and Manufactures.

A message, in writing, was received from the President of the United States, by Mr. Graham, who delivered in the same, and then withdrew.

The said message was then read at the Clerk's table, and is as followeth:

"Fellow citizens of the Senate

and of the House of Representatives.

"At the period of our last meeting, I had the satisfaction of communicating an adjustment with one of the principal belligerent nations, highly important in itself, and still more so, as presaging a more extended accommodation. It is with deep concern I am now to inform you, that the favorable prospect has been overclouded, by a refusal of the British government to abide by the act of its minister plenipo tentiary, and by its ensuing policy towards the Unit ed States, as seen through the communications of the minister sent to replace him.

Whatever pleas may be urged for a disavowal of engagements formed by diplomatic functionaries, in cases where, by the terms of the engagements, a mutual ratification is reserved; or where notice at the time may have been given of a departure from instructions; or in extraordinary cases, essentially violating the principles of equity; a disavowal could not have been apprehended in a case, where no such notice or violation existed; where no such ratification was reserved; and more especially, where, as is now in proof, an engagement, to be exe cuted without any such ratification, was contem plated by the instructions given, and where it had, with good faith, been carried into immediate execu tion, on the part of the United States.

These considerations not having restrained the British government from disavowing the arrangement, by virtue of which its orders in council were to be revoked, and the event authorizing the renewal of commercial intercourse having thus not taken place it necessarily became a question, of equal urgency and importance, whether the act prohibiting that intercourse was not to be considered as remaining in legal force. This question being, after due deliberation, determined in the affirmative, a proclamation to that

effect was issued. It could not but happen, however, that a return to this state of things, from that which had followed an execution of the arrangement by the United States, would involve difficulties. With a view to diminish these as much as possible, the instructions from the Secretary of the Treasury, now laid before you, were transmitted to the collectors of the several ports. If, in permitting British vessels to depart, without giving bonds not to proceed to their own ports, it should appear, that the tenor of legal authority has not been strictly pursued, it is to be ascribed to the anxious desire which was felt, that no individuals should be injured by so unforeseen an occurrence: And I rely on the regard of Congress for the equitable interests of our own citizens, to adopt whatever further provisions may be found requisite for a gene. ral remission of penalties involuntarily incurred.

The recall of the disavowed minister having been followed by the appointment of a successor, hopes were indulged that the new mission would contribute to alleviate the disappointment which had been produced, and to remove the causes which had so long embarrassed the good understanding of the two nations. It could not be doubted, that it would at least be charged with conciliatory explanations of the step which had been taken, and with proposals to be substituted for the rejected arrangement. Reasonable and universal as this expcctation was, it also has not been fulfilled. From the first official disclosures of the new minister, it was found that he had received no authority to enter into explanations relative to either branch of the arrangement disavowed; nor any authority to substitute proposals, as to that branch, which concerned the British orders in council: And finally, that his proposals with respect to the other branch, the attack on the frigate Chesapeake, were founded on a presumption, repeatedly declared to be inadmissible by the United States, that the first step towards adjustment was due from them; the pro