encies. Mr. Gallatin did not hold
English diplomacy in very high regard. Late in life he said that the
history of the relations of England and France was a story of the
triumphs of English arms and of French diplomacy; that England was
always victorious, but France had as often negotiated her out of the
fruits of success. True as this remark was in general, it cannot be said
of the policy of England in American affairs. She pushed to the utmost
her exclusion of France from the American continent when the States were
colonies, and now that they were free and independent she would listen
to no foreign intervention. Neither in peace nor war should any third
government stand between the two nations. This was and ever has been the
true policy of Great Britain, and that it was not lost sight of in the
heat of war is to the credit of her diplomacy. The offer of Russia to
mediate was not welcome, and was set aside by Lord Castlereagh in a note
of discouragement. There was no ground for the commissioners to stand
upon; moreover the emperor and Count Nesselrode were absent from St.
Petersburg, Count Romanzoff being left in charge of the foreign
relations. The offer of mediation had originated with him. His policy
was to curb the maritime power of England, and to secure in the
negotiation a modification at least of the offensive practice of Great
Britain in her assumed police of the sea.

The war was in fact a legacy of the necessarily incomplete diplomacy of
Washington's administration and the Jay treaty. The determining cause
was the enforcement of the right of search and the impressment of seamen
from American vessels; a practice at variance with the rights and the
law of nations. Monroe, Madison's secretary of state, urged the clear
and distinct forbearance of this British practice as the one object to
be obtained. An article in the treaty giving security in that respect
was by Gallatin, as well as by Monroe, considered a _sine qua non_
condition; while Mr. Bayard viewed an informal arrangement as equally
efficient and more practicable than a solemn article. But there was no
doubt of Bayard's determination to reach the result prescribed in their
instructions.

Mr. Gallatin's first act after setting foot on European shores was to
write to Baring Brothers & Co. at London. This he did from Gottenburg,
requesting a passport for the Neptune, which the commission proposed to
retain at St. Petersburg until their return. At the same