Alexandria Daily Gazette, Commercial & Political

In the case of the American ship Female, Cregh, master, detained for a breach of the orders in council, and brought to adjudication before the Court of Admiralty, on Tuesday last. Dr. Philimore moved the Court for permission to introduce evidence to shew that the operation of the decrees of Berlin and Milan had ceased. He stated, that if this fact could, as he was credibly informed it could, be proved, he should then think he might confidently contend before the court, that the Americans would be entitled to the restoration of their property, even though there was no formal revocation of the orders in council on the part of our government--that the ground of his argument would be, that as the orders in council were allowed to be contrary to the law of nations, and only justified as a measure of retaliation, if it could be shewed that the decrees, which they were intended to retaliate, were no longer in existence, then these orders would become ipso facto cancelled and annulled--and could have no legal validity in a court of the law of nations. The learned counsel urged the propriety of granting every indulgence to American merchants, who were trading in strict conformity to the ancient acknowledged rules of maritime law, and whose property could only be liable to confiscation, under innovations lately introduced into that law. Sir W. Scott, after enquiring whether the proofs suggested could be immediately produced, rejected the application. He thought the case in question must follow the course of the other American cases, he could not presume a revocation of the orders in council till it had been notified to him by government, and he suggested, that even if it could be shewn that the French decrees were revoked, there would still be a question of law, whether a repeal of them as to America alone, would be considered as a repeal by our government.