"If Mr. Canning should not join his old colleagues before the meeting of Parliament, he will probably soon fall into the ranks of opposition, where he will be formidable. There will scarcely be any scruple in receiving him. If he should join his old colleagues, they will not gain much by him. As a debater in the House of Commons, he would be useful to them;* but his reputation is not at this moment in the best possible plight, and his 'weight and connections are almost nothing. I am not sure that they would not lose by him more than they could gain.

If Lord Grenville and Lord Grey should be recalled to power, Lord Holland would be likely to have the station of Foreign Secretary (Lord Grey preferring, as it is said, the Admiralty.)

I believe that I have not mentioned to you that Mr. G. H. Rose was to have been the special envoy to our country, if Mr. Erskine's arrangement had not been disavowed. I am bound to say that a worse choice could not have been made. Since his return to England, he has, I know, misrepresented and traduced us with an industry that is absolutely astonishing, notwithstanding the cant of friendship and respect with which he overwhelms the few Americans who see him.

Mr. MADISON to Mr. PINKNEY.

"WASHINGTON, Jan. 20th, 1810.

"DEAR SIR, I received, some days ago, a letter from Dr. Logan, containing observations on the posture and prospects of our foreign relations. Before the answer was out of my hands, I received another, dated four days after, in which he merely informed me that he should embark for England in about eight days, with an offer to take charge of any communications for you. As his first letter did not glance at any such intention, it must be presumed to have been very suddenly formed. And as his last is silent as to the object of the trip, this is left to conjecture. From the anxiety expressed in his first letter for the preservation of peace with England, which appeared to him to be in peculiar danger, and from his known benevolence and zeal on the subject, it may reasonably be supposed that his views relate, in some form or other, to a mitigation of the hostile tendencies which distress him; and that his silence may proceed from a wish to give no handle for animadversions of any sort on the step taken by him.

" You will receive from the Secretary of State, unless, indeed, the opportunity fail through the shortness of the notice, such communications and observations as may be thought useful to you. You will find that the perplexity of our situation is amply displayed by the diversity of opinions and prolixity of discussions in Congress. Few are desirous of war; and few are reconciled to submission; yet the frustration of intermediate courses seems to have left scarce any escape from that dilemma. The fate of Mr. Macon's bill, as it is called, is not certain. It will probably pass the House of Representatives, and for aught I know, may be concurred in by the Senate. If retaliated by Great Britain, it will operate as a non-importation act, and throw exports into the circuit of the non-intercourse act: If not retaliated, it may be felt by the British navigation, and through that interest, by the government: since the execution of the law, which relates to the ship, and not to the merchandise, cannot be evaded. With respect to the East Indies, the proposed regulation will have the effect of compelling the admission of a direct and exclusive trade for our vessels, or a relinquishment of this market for India goods, further than they can be smuggled into it. It just appears that a proposition has been made in the House of Representatives, to employ our ships of war in convoys, and to permit merchantmen to arm. However plausible the arguments for this experiment, its tendency to hostile collisions is so evident, that I think its success improbable. As a mode of going into war, it does not seem likely to be generally approved, if war was the object. The military preparations which have been recommended and are under consideration, are what they profess to be, measures of precaution. They are not only justified but dictated by the uncertainty attending the course which Great Britain may take, or rather by the unyielding and unamicable traits in her cabinet and her countenance. Measures of that sort are also the more adapted to our situation, as in the event of accommodation with Great Britain they may possibly be wanted in another quarter. The long debates on the resolution of Mr. Giles, on the subject of Mr. Jackson, have terminated in affirmative votes by large majorities. This, with the refusal of the Executive to hold communications with him, it is supposed, will produce a crisis in the British policy towards the United States, to which the representations of the angry minister will doubtless be calculated to give an unfavourable turn. Should this happen, our precautionary views will have been the more seasonable. It is most probable, however, that instead of expressing resentment by open war, it will appear in more extended depredations on our commerce, in declining to replace Mr. Jackson, and perhaps in the course, observed with respect to you, in meeting which your own judgment will be the best guide. Should a change in the composition or calculations of the cabinet give a favourable turn to its policy towards this country, it is desirable that no time may be lost in allowing it its effect. With this view you will be reminded of the several authorities you retain to meet in negociation, and of the instructions by which they are to be exercised: it being always understood that, with the exception of some arrangement touching the Orders in Council, reparation for the insult on the Chesapeake must precede a general negociation on the questions between the two countries. At present nothing precise can be said as to a condition on our part for a repeal of the Orders in Council; the existing authority in the Executive to pledge one, being expirable with the Non-Intercourse act, and no other pledge being provided for. As it is our anxious desire, however, if the British government should adopt just and conciliatory views, that nothing may be omitted that can show our readiness to second them, you may offer a general assurance that, as in the case of the Embargo, and the Non-Intercourse acts, any similar power with which the Executive may be clothed, will be exercised in the same spirit

"You will, doubtless, be somewhat surprised to find among the communications to Congress, and in print too, the confidential conversations with Mr. Canning reserved from such a use by your own request. It was, in fact, impossible to resist the

pointed call for them, without giving umbrage to some, and opportunity for injurious inferences to others. The difficulty was increased by the connexion between them and other communications necessarily falling within the scope of the rule of compliance in such cases. Finally, there did not appear to be any thing in the conversations which could warrant British complaint of their disclosure, or widen the space between you and the British ministry.

"As it may not be amiss that you should know the sentiments which I had expressed to Dr. Logan, and which, though in answer to his letter written previous to the notification of his intended trip, he will, of course, carry with him, I enclose a copy of the answer.

"The file of newspapers from the Department of State, will give you the debates on the case of Jackson. I enclose, however, a speech I have just looked over in a pamphlet form. Although liable to very obvious criticisms of several sorts, it has presented a better analysis of some parts of the subject, than I have observed in any of the speeches."

Mr. PISKNEY to Mr. MADISON.

"LONDON, 23d March, 1810.

"DEAR SIR,--I had intended to write to you a very tedious letter, but I have no longer time to do so--as it is now near 2 o'clock in the morning, and Lieut. Elliott leaves town at 10, A. М. "My official letter of the 21st inst. will apprize you of the course finally taken by this government in consequence of Mr. Jackson's affair. I do not pretend to anticipate your judgment upon it. It certainly is not what I wished, and, at one time, expected; but I am persuaded that it is meant to be conciliatory. I have laboured earnestly to produce such a result as I believed would be more acceptable. Why I have failed I do not precisely know, and I will not harass you with conjectures. The result, such as it is, will I am sure be used in the wisest manner for the honour and prosperity of our country.

" It is doubtful whether there will be any change of administration here. Partial changes in administration are very likely. " I think I can say with certainty that a more friendly disposition towards the United States exists in this country at present than for a long time past."

"WASHINGTON, May 23d, 1810.

DEAR SIR, You will learn from the Department of State, as you must have anticipated, our surprize that the answer of Lord Wellesley to your very just and able view of the case of Jackson, corresponded so little with the impressions of that minister manifested in your first interviews with him. The date of the answer explains the change, as it shows that time was taken for obtaining intelligence from this country, and adapting the policy of the answer to the position taken by the advocates of Jackson. And it must have happened that the intelligence prevailing at that date was of the sort most likely to mislead. The elections which have since taken place in the eastern states, and which have been materially influenced by the affair of Jackson and the spirit of party connected with it, are the strongest of proofs that the measure of the executive coincided with the feelings of the nation. In every point of view the answer is unworthy of the source from which it comes.

"From the manner in which the vacancy left by Jackson is provided for, it is inferred that a sacrifice is meant of the respect belonging to this government, either to the pride of the British government, or to the feelings of those who have taken side with it against their own. On either supposition, it is necessary to counteract the ignoble purpose. You will accordingly find that on ascertaining the substitution of a chargé to be an intentional degradation of the diplomatic intercourse on the part of Great Britain, it is deemed proper that no higher functionary should represent the United States at London. I sincerely wish, on every account, that the views of the British government in this instance, may not be such as are denoted by appearances, or that, on finding the tendency of them, they may be changed. However the fact may turn out, you will of course not lose sight of the expe