sent at King's request,
the admiral wrote: "Mr. King is probably not aware of the abuses which
are committed by American Consuls in France, Spain, and Portugal, from
the generality of whom every Englishman, knowing him to be such, may
be made an American for a dollar. I have known more than one American
master carry off soldiers, in their regimentals, arms, and
accoutrements, from the garrison at Gibraltar; and there cannot be a
doubt but the American trade is navigated by a majority of British
subjects; and a very considerable one too." However inspired by
prejudice, these words in their way echo Gaston's statements just
quoted; while Madison in 1806 admitted that the number of British
seamen in American merchant ships was "considerable, though probably
less than supposed."

Entertaining these impressions, the concurrence of St. Vincent seemed
doubtful; and in fact, through the period of nominal peace which soon
ensued, and continued to May, 1803, the matter dragged. When the
renewal of the war was seen to be inevitable, King again urged a
settlement, and the Foreign Secretary promised to sign any agreement
which the admiral would approve. After conference, King thought he had
gained this desired consent, for a term of five years, to the American
proposition. He drew up articles embodying it, together with the
necessary equivalents to be stipulated by the United States; but,
before these could be submitted, he received a letter from St.
Vincent, saying that he was of the opinion that the narrow seas should
be expressly excepted from the operation of the clause, "as they had
been immemorially considered to be within the dominions of Great
Britain." Since this would give the consent of the United States to
the extension of British jurisdiction far beyond the customary three
miles from the shore, conceded by international law, King properly
would not accept the solution, tempting as was the opportunity to
secure immunity for Americans in other quarters from the renewed
outrages that could be foreseen. He soon after returned to the United
States, where his decision was of course approved; for though the Gulf
Stream appeared to Jefferson the natural limit for the neutral
jurisdiction of America, the claim of Great Britain to the narrow seas
was evidently a grave encroachment upon the rights of others.

In later years Lord Castlereagh, in an interview with the American
charge d'affaires, Jonathan Russell, assured him that