Mr.Gallatin recommended that the duties should be doubled in case war were threatened.

He said, "Should the revenue fall below seven millions of dollars, not only the duty on salt and the Mediterranean duties could be immediately revived, but the duties on importation generally be considerably increased, perhaps double, with less inconvenience than would arise from any other mode of taxation." Experience had proven that this source of revenue is in the United States "the most productive, the easiest to collect, and least burdensome to the great mass of the people." But still the war-cloud did not break.

Mr.Canning contented himself with war in disguise, and by his Order in Council of November 11, 1807, shut the ports of Europe to American trade, and wiped away the advantages of the United States as a neutral power.

The United States answered with the act of embargo on December 22, 1807, completing, as far as it was possible for legislation to effect it, the blockade of the Treasury Department as regarded revenues from foreign imports.

The immediate effect, however, of these acts in Great Britain and America was an enormous temporary increase of importations in the interim from the time of the passage of the act until the date when it took effect.