A pamphlet by Lord Sheffield,[235] and another by Mr. Chalmers,[236] urged that the remaining loyal continental colonies sufficed to supply the British West India Islands with lumber and provisions, which the advocates on the opposite side of the question denied. Great discussions arose, in which all the controverted points of free trade and exclusion were again urged in innumerable publications; and, as usual, glaring exaggerations were resorted to on both sides. In the sequel, the English government adopted a middle course. A proclamation of the 2nd of July, 1783, by the King in council, permitted British subjects to carry in _British vessels_ all kinds of naval stores, lumber, live-stock, corn, &c., from the United States of America to the West India Islands, and also to export rum, sugar, molasses, coffee, cocoa, &c., from the Islands to the States under the same regulations and duties as if these commodities had been cleared out for a British possession. This concession naturally satisfied neither parties; Great Britain and the United States alike regarding it with either alarm or disdain. The West India planters apprehended instant ruin if there were any check on the free and unrestricted intercourse with the continent; while the Americans carried their resentment to an extent sufficient to induce three of the States to make a requisition to Congress that all commercial intercourse with England should be prohibited. The British government, however, vigorously supported by the shipping interest, remained inexorable in its restrictive policy. In this matter the American people, moved, as it would seem, entirely by an instinctive sense of self-interest, became the champions of a free-trade policy in shipping, while their shipowners, relying on the provisions of the Navigation Act, assumed the character of exclusionists. Thus the antagonistic interests of the shipowners of the two countries disturbed the friendly feelings which might otherwise have prevailed. Three temporary Orders in Council were issued, relating to the importation of tobacco, and payment of duties: a matter of no little difficulty before the organisation of the English warehousing system. The third of these “Orders” renewed that of the 2nd of July, regulating the intercourse between the United States and the West Indies, but relaxed the previous regulations for the British trade so far as to permit the importation of any unmanufactured goods not prohibited by law, except oil, pitch, tar, turpentine, indigo, masts, yards, and bowsprits, being the produce of the United States, either by British or American subjects, and either in British or American vessels. This arrangement, having received parliamentary sanction, was continued annually with little alteration throughout the next five years; but the Americans during this period persisted in urging their claims to have both trades placed on a more liberal system.