nstant, on
the subject of impressment, shall be transmitted without delay to my
government, and will, you may be assured, receive from them the
deliberate attention which its importance deserves.

The object of my mission was mainly the settlement of existing subjects
of difference; and no differences have or could have arisen of late
years with respect to impressment, because the practice has, since the
peace, wholly ceased, and cannot, consistently with existing laws and
regulations for manning her Majesty's navy, be, under the present
circumstances, renewed.

Desirous, however, of looking far forward into futurity to anticipate
even possible causes of disagreement, and sensible of the anxiety of the
American people on this grave subject of past irritation, I should be
sorry in any way to discourage the attempt at some settlement of it;
and, although without authority to enter upon it here during the limited
continuance of my mission, I entertain a confident hope that this task
may be accomplished, when undertaken with the spirit of candor and
conciliation which has marked all our late negotiations.

It not being our intention to endeavor now to come to any agreement on
this subject, I may be permitted to abstain from noticing at length your
very ingenious arguments relating to it, and from discussing the graver
matters of constitutional and international law growing out of them.
These sufficiently show that the question is one requiring calm
consideration; though I must, at the same time, admit that they prove a
strong necessity of some settlement for the preservation of that good
understanding which, I trust, we may flatter ourselves that our joint
labors have now succeeded in establishing.

I am well aware that the laws of our two countries maintain opposite
principles respecting allegiance to the sovereign. America, receiving
every year by thousands the emigrants of Europe, maintains the doctrine
suitable to her condition, of the right of transferring allegiance at
will. The laws of Great Britain have maintained from all time the
opposite doctrine. The duties of allegiance are held to be indefeasible;
and it is believed that this doctrine, under various modifications,
prevails in most, if not in all, the civilized states of Europe.

Emigration, the modern mode by which the population of the world
peaceably finds its level, is for the benefit of all, and eminently for
the benefit of humanity. The fertile deser