During 1808, the feeling in the country against France became stronger. By Napoleon's Milan decree, which reached America in March, "every ship which should have been searched by a British vessel, or should have paid any duty to the British government, or should come from or be destined to any port in the British possessions in any part of the world should be good prize." It was after the Milan decree that the question was mooted in the United States of an alliance with England, and it was announced by Secretary Madison that an order had been issued to discharge all British subjects from national ships. The non-intercourse and embargo had done England immense harm and were {111} working havoc among certain classes of the population. The artizans of Staffordshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire were reduced to the verge of famine, while quantities of sugar, coffee, etc., overfilled the warehouses of London. Under the orders-in-council the whole produce of the West Indies, shut out from Europe by Napoleon's decrees, and from America by the embargo, came to England, until the market was overstocked. English merchants sent their goods to Brazil until the beach at Rio de Janeiro was covered with property perishing for want of buyers and warehouses. [Sidenote: The war of trade] While this war of trade was going on, Napoleon, by every means in his power, by taunts, and threats, and cajolery, was trying to force America into a declaration of war against England. He said, "The United States, more than any other power, have to complain of the aggressions of England. In the situation in which England has placed the continent, His Majesty has no doubt of a declaration of war against her by the United States." He wrote to his secretary of war, Champagny, "In my mind, I regard war as declared between England and America from the day when England published her decrees." Again he wrote, "Let the American minister know verbally that whenever war shall be declared with England, and whenever, in consequence, the Americans shall send troops into the Floridas to help the Spaniards and repulse the English, I shall much approve of it. You will even {112} let him perceive that in case America shall be disposed to enter into a treaty of alliance and make common cause with me, I shall not be unwilling to intercede with the court of Spain to obtain the cession of these same Floridas in favour of the Americans." So the tempting bait of Florida was held dangling before Jefferson, whose cherished hope it was to see that territory added to the United States. General Armstrong, the American minister in Paris, does not seem to have been deceived by Napoleon's manoeuvres. He writes: "With one hand they offer us the blessing of equal alliance, with the other they menace us with war if we do not accept the kindness, and with both they pick our pockets with all imaginable dexterity, diligence, and impudence."