Sherbrooke's few
companies at Castine, ready to retreat at a moment's notice. "If this
reasoning be true, why stipulate for the _uti possidetis_?"[519]

Penned November 9, the day before the American negotiators at Ghent
handed in their requested _projet_, this letter may be regarded as
decisive. November 13, Liverpool replied that the ministry was waiting
anxiously for the American _projet_, ... and, "without entering into
particulars, I can assure you that we shall be disposed to meet your
views upon the points on which the negotiation appears to turn at
present;" the points being the _uti possidetis_, with the several
details of possession put forward by Bathurst. The American paper was in
London before the 18th, when Liverpool wrote to Castlereagh, "I think we
have determined, if all other points can be satisfactorily settled, not
to continue the war for the purpose of obtaining, or securing, any
acquisition of territory. We have been led to this determination by the
consideration of the unsatisfactory state of the negotiations at Vienna,
and by that of the alarming situation of the interior of France." "Under
such circumstances, it has appeared to us desirable to bring the
American war, if possible, to a conclusion."[520] The basis of the
_status quo ante bellum_, sustained all along by the American
commission, was thus definitely accepted, and so stated formally by
Bathurst.[521]

This fundamental agreement having been reached, the negotiations ran
rapidly to a settlement without further serious hitch; a conclusion to
which contributed powerfully the increasing anxiety of the British
ministry over the menacing aspect of the Continent. The American
_projet_,[522] besides the customary formal stipulations as to
procedure for bringing hostilities to a close, consisted of articles
embodying the American positions on the subjects of impressment and
blockade, with claims for indemnity for losses sustained by irregular
captures and seizures during the late hostilities between France and
Great Britain; a provision aimed at the Orders in Council. These
demands, which covered the motives of the war, and may be regarded as
the offensive side of the American negotiation, were pronounced
inadmissible at once by the British, and were immediately abandoned.
Their presentation had been merely formal; the United States
Government, within its own council chamber, had already recognized
that they could not be enforced. The _projet