merican Government was lying when it said it did not know
the facts as to Erskine's instructions.[302] It would be quite in
character that he should; but he did not say so. There was put into
his mouth a construction of his words which he heedlessly accepted.

Jackson's dismissal was notified to the British Government through
Pinkney, on January 2, 1810.[303] Some time before, a disagreement
within the British Cabinet had led to a duel between Castlereagh and
Canning, in which the latter was severely wounded. He did not return
to the Foreign Office, but was succeeded by the Marquis Wellesley,
brother of the future Duke of Wellington. After presenting the view of
the correspondence taken by his Government, Pinkney seems to betray a
slight uneasiness as to the accuracy of the interpretation placed on
Jackson's words. "I willingly leave your Lordship to judge whether Mr.
Jackson's correspondence will bear any other construction than that it
in fact received; and whether, supposing it to have been erroneously
construed, his letter of the 4th of November should not have corrected
the mistake, instead of confirming and establishing it."

Wellesley, with a certain indolent nonchalance, characteristic of his
correspondence with Pinkney, delayed to answer for two months, and
then gave a reply as indifferent in manner as it was brief in terms.
Jackson had written, "There appears to have prevailed, throughout the
whole of this transaction [Erskine's], a fundamental mistake, which
would suggest that his Majesty had proposed to propitiate the
Government of the United States, to consent to the renewal of
commercial intercourse; ... as if, in any arrangement, his Majesty
would condescend to barter objects of national policy and dignity for
permission to trade with another country." The phrase was Canning's,
and summarized precisely the jealous attitude towards its own prestige
characteristic of the British policy of the day. It also defined
exactly the theory upon which the foreign policy of the United States
had been directed for eight years by the party still in power. Madison
and Jefferson had both placed just this construction upon Erskine's
tender. "The British Cabinet must have changed its course under a full
conviction that an adjustment with this country had become
essential."[304] "Gallatin had a conversation with Turreau at his
residence near Baltimore. He professes to be confident that his
Government will consider England