The English courts, therefore, acting in perfect consistency with the principle of their former decisions, when these facts were made known to them, refused any longer to admit the payment of duties in America as a proof of a _bonâ fide_ operation. On the other hand, the merchants of America, without looking at the legal grounds of former decisions, had trusted to Lord Hawkesbury’s communication made during the previous war, which led the American government to believe that “landing the goods and paying the duties legalised the trade,” and had consequently embarked their capital and ships in a commerce they felt assured was a legal and permitted trade. When, therefore, they saw their vessels captured by the British cruisers, without any previous warning, and brought into the Vice-Admiralty Courts for adjudication, they naturally complained of the violent and inconsistent conduct of England, and loudly accused her of robbery and injustice. Indignation meetings, as they have since been termed, were convened in all the principal commercial cities of America; declarations and resolutions were voted; and petitions and remonstrances were addressed to the President and Legislature. Congress, as was natural, caught the flame with which it was surrounded, and after a multitude of injudicious and inflammatory resolutions, passed a non-importation Act[325] against the manufactures of Great Britain, to take effect in the ensuing month of November. In the meantime the commissioners sent to negotiate with Great Britain were instructed to obtain from the government a clear and precise rule for regulating their trade with the colonies of the enemy, which should not be liable to be changed by Orders in Council or instructions to cruisers. [Sidenote: Proceedings of the shipowners of New York.] [Sidenote: Duties of Neutrals.]