Alexandria Daily Advertiser

An interesting case.--The following is a copy of a letter from Mr. S. Williams, to the late owner of the Essex of Salem dated London. June 22 1805.

"SIR--I am sorry to inform you that on a hearing of the case of the Essex this day, the lords of appeal affirmed the sentence of condemnation pronounced by the vice admiralty court. The court was not satisfied that it was not your intention, at the commencement of the voyage to send the vessels to Havanna with Spanish produce."

The case of the Essex was as follows: She had taken in a cargo at Barcelona, 3 or 4 years since, under orders to proceed from thence to Calcutta; but owing to the impossibility of procuring there the specie necessary for the fulfilment of the object, the master ventured to return to America, and the cargo was landed in Salem; but it was afterwards under the idea of its being completely neutralized, re-shipped, and the vessel sailed with it for Havanna. On this 2d voyage, the Essex was taken and sent into N. Providence where vessel and cargo were condemned. The decree however was provisionally reversed in England, requiring in the mean time the owner to produce proofs that the cargo was not originally intended for the Havanna. Documents were therefore forwarded, supposed fully to establish this proof; and among them the letters of the captain, stating his difficulties, and the necessity of going counter to his orders by returning to America, instead of proceeding to Calcutta. Notwithstanding this, we see the lords of appeals have affirmed the sentence of condemnation in the V. A. court. What makes this decision the more important and alarming, is the principle constantly acted upon our merchants, that property imported into America, and landed, might afterwards be legitimately exported to the dominions of the same power from whom they were originally brought: and in this predicament we presume is now a vast amount of American capital; which, upon the principle adopted by the lords of appeal, is in danger of sharing the same fate with the Essex.