All this is apparent on the face; but it was demonstrated by the action of the Commissioners. The experiment was made with regard to captures prior to the ratification of the Convention of 1800, and no less than one hundred and four cases were submitted to the board. All but four were rejected. The first rejections, in point of time, were January 11, 1833, in two different cases, when we have the following entries: “Caroline, captured February 10, 1798,--rejected,--_the vessel having been captured before the 30th September, 1800_”; “Brig Orlando, captured March 1, 1800,--rejected,--_the capture having been made anterior to the 30th September, 1800_.”[240] The indemnities allowed by the Commissioners were mainly for captures under the decrees of Berlin, Milan, Rambouillet, and Trianon,--that succession of sweeping edicts by which Napoleon at the height of power enforced his Continental system. There were four awards for captures after the signature of the Convention of 1800, and before its ratification. As such cases, occurring during this intermediate period, were plainly saved from the renunciation of the Convention of 1800,[241] and yet were not included in the Convention of 1803, they came naturally within the scope of the Convention of 1831. The claims in question had no such advantage. Renounced in 1800, they were not adopted in 1831. But, ceasing to be claims upon France, they have become claims upon the United States. IV.--THESE CLAIMS NOT AFFECTED BY THE ACT OF CONGRESS ANNULLING THE FRENCH TREATIES. Then it is said that the French treaties were annulled by Act of Congress, so as to render the set-off and mutual release a mere form, and nothing else. This objection, also, proceeds in ignorance of the question. It is true, the United States, by Act of Congress, July 7, 1798, declared the treaties heretofore concluded with France _no longer obligatory_.[242] But the question still remained as to the effect of this Act. Not purporting to be retrospective, all obligations under the treaties at that date were fixed, whether on the part of the United States or on the part of France. Therefore France, besides constant liability under the Law of Nations, was liable also under the treaties for all depredations anterior to this date, and the United States were liable for all non-performance of obligations anterior to this date. Assuming that the treaties were annulled, it is evident that the anterior claims of each were not in any way affected; so that there was still, even under the treaties, occasion for set-off and mutual release.