At the end of last week, arrived the message of
President TYLER to the American House of Representatives, reasserting the construction which he has put upon the 8th article of the Ash- burton treaty, that it relinquishes the right of visit,—in other words, that it repeals all former treaties and supersedes all former claims by this country, in favour of the precise stipulations which it contains. The treaty itself purports to do nothing of the kind ; there is nothing in it which can be forced into an allusion to the right of visit. The treaty says, in the 8th article, that each coun- try shall maintain an " independent" fleet on the coast of Africa, to enforce on its own subjects its own laws against the slave-trade ; but it makes no provision for ascertaining whose subjects any sus- pected vessel may really contain, which is the object of the right of visit ; nor does it provide for preventing that necessary preliminary. The American fleet can enforce American laws on American sub- jects; but, obviously, it cannot determine whether a vessel en- countered by the English fleet is truly American or Portuguese under American colours. The disputed point may be one which it is very desirable to settle, but the Ashburton treaty cannot be blamed for dealing ill with a matter which it does not touch at all.
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