Proclamation 23—Removing Restrictions on Plaster of Paris in Relation to the Province of Nova Scotia

Whereas by an act of the lieutenant-governor, council, and assembly of his Britannic Majesty's Province of Nova Scotia, passed in the year 1816, it was, among other things, enacted that from and after the 1st day of May of that year "no plaster of paris, otherwise called gypsum, which should be laden or put on board any ship or vessel at any port or place within the limits of the said Province to be transported from thence to any other port or place within or without the said limits should, directly or indirectly, be unladen or landed or put on shore at any port or place in the United States of America eastward of Boston, in the State of Massachusetts, nor unladen or put on board any American ship, vessel, boat, or shallop of any description at any port or place eastward of Boston aforesaid, under the penalty of the forfeiture of every such ship or vessel from which any such plaster of paris, or gypsum, should be unladen contrary to the provision of the said act, together with her boats, tackle, apparel, and furniture, to be seized and prosecuted in the manner therein-after mentioned ;" and

Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States passed on the 3d day of March, 1817, it was enacted that from and after the 4th day of July then next no plaster of paris the production of any country or its dependencies from which the vessels of the United States were not permitted to bring the same article should be imported into the United States in any foreign vessel, and that all plaster of paris imported or attempted to be imported into the United States contrary to the true intent and meaning of the said act of Congress, and the vessel in which the same might be imported or attempted to be imported, together with the cargo, tackle, apparel, and furniture, should be forfeited to the United States and liable to be seized, prosecuted, and condemned in the manner therein prescribed; and

Whereas by the said act of Congress it was further enacted that the same should continue and be in force five years from January 31, 1817; provided, nevertheless, that if any foreign nation or its dependencies which at the time of the passage of the said act of Congress had in force regulations on the subject of the trade in plaster of paris prohibiting the exportation thereof to certain ports of the United States should discontinue such regulations, the President of the United States was thereby authorized to declare that fact by his proclamation, and the restrictions imposed by the said act of Congress should from the date of such proclamation cease and be discontinued in relation to the nation or its dependencies discontinuing such regulations; and

Whereas an act of the lieutenant-governor, council, and assembly of His Britannic Majesty's Province of Nova Scotia, repealing the above-mentioned act of the said Province, passed in the year 1816, has been officially communicated by his said Majesty's envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to this Government; and

Whereas by the said repealing act of the said Province of Nova Scotia, one of the dependencies of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the regulations at the time of the passage of the said act of Congress in force in the said Province on the subject of the trade in plaster of paris, prohibiting the exportation thereof to certain ports of the United States, have been and are discontinued:

Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States of America, do by this my proclamation declare that fact, and that the restrictions imposed by the said act of Congress do from the date hereof cease and are discontinued in relation to His Britannic Majesty's said Province of Nova Scotia.

Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 23d day of April, A. D. 1818, and in the forty-second year of the Independence of the United States.

JAMES MONROE.

By the President:

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,

Secretary of State,