government, I have, as on the preceding occafion, been induced to lay your letter of the 12th inft. before his Royal Highness the Prince Regent.

His Royal Highnefs commands me to exprefs to you his regret that he cannot perceive any fubftantial difference between the propofition for a fufpenfion of hoftilities which you are now directed to make, and that which was contained in your letter of the 24th of Aug. laft. The form of the proposed arrangement, it is true, is different; but it only appears to aim at executing the fame purpose in a more covert, and, therefore, in a more objectionable manner.

You are now directed to require, as preliminary to a fufpenfion of hoftilities, a clear and diftinct understanding, without, however, requiring it to be formal on all the points referred to in your former propofition. It is obvious that, were this propofal acceded to, the difcuffion on the feveral points must fubftantially precede the understanding required.

This courfe of proceeding,as bearing on the face of it a character of ditguife, is not only felt to be in principle inadmiffible, but as unlikely to lead in practice to any advantageous refult; as it does not appear on the important subject of impressment that you are either authorised to propose any specific plan, with reference to which the fuspension of that practice could be made a fubject of deliberation, or that you have received any inftructions for the guidance of your conduct on fome of the leading principles, which such a difcuffion muft in the first inftance involve.

Under thefe circumftances the Prince Regent fincerely lamen's that he does not feel himself enabled to depart from the decifion, which I was directed to convey to you in my letter of the 21 inft.

I have the honor to be, fir, your moft obedient fervant, CASTLEREAGH.

Jonathan Russell, Esq.

Mr. Russell to Mr. Munroe.

London, 19th Sept. 1812. SIR-Since writing you this morning, fearing that this government should infer from my filence an acquiefcence in the ftrange and unwarrantable view which Lord Caftlereagh has in his laft note thought fit to take of the overtures which I have fubmitted, and of the powers under which I acted, I have confidered it my duty to return an answer, of which the enclofed is a copy.

With great confideration and refpect, I am, Sir, your assured and obedient fervant,

(Signed)

To the hon. James Munroe &c.

JONA. RUSSELL.

Mr. Russell to Lord Castlereagh.

London, 19th Sept. 1812. MY LORD-I had the honor to receive last evening your Lordship's note of yesterday; and have learnt with great regret and disappointment that His Royal Highness the Prince Regent has again rejected the just and moderate propositions for a suspension of hostilittes, which I have been instructed to present on the part of my government.

After the verbal explanations which I had the honor to afford your lordship on the 16th inst. both as to the object and sufficiency of my instructions. I did not expect to hear repeated any objections on these points. For itself, the American government has nothing to disguise ; and by varying the proposition as to the manurer of coming to a prelimin Ary understanding, it merely intended to leave to the British government that which might be most congenial to its feelings. The propositions presented by me, however, on the 24th August and 12th inst are distinguishable by a diversity in the substance as well as in the mode of the object which they embraced; as by the former, the discontinuance of the practice of impressment was to be immediate, and to precede the prohibitory law of the U. States relative to the employment of British seamen ; when by the latter, both these measures are deferred to take effect simultaneously hereafter

Having made a precise tender of such law, and exhibited the instructions which warranted it, to your lordship, I have learnt with surprise that it does not appear to your lordship that I am authorised to propose any specific plan on the subject of impressment. I still hope that the overtures made by me may again be taken into consideration by his Britannic majesty's government; and as I leave town this afternoon for the United States, that it will authorise some agent to proceed thither, and adopt them as a basis for reconciliation between the two countries, an event so devoutly to be wished.

I have the honor to be my Lord, your most obedient humble servant. JONA. RUSSELL.

(Signed) The right honorable

Lord Castlereagh, &c.

Mr. Russell to Mr. Monroe.

• (Private.).

On board the Lark, 7th Nov. 1812. SIR-I have the honor to inform you that I am now passing the Narrows, and expect to land in New York this day. I conceive it to be my duty to repair to the seat of government, and shall set off as soon as I can obtain my baggage. In the mean time I am sorry to inform you, that the second proposition for an armistice was rejected like the first, and a vigorous prosecution of the war appears to be the only honorable alternative left us.

your

I have the honor to be, with great consideration and respect, sir, very obedient servant. JONA. RUSSELL.

The Honorable

JAMES MONROE, &c. &c. &c.

MESSAGE.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 18, 1812. The following message was received from the President of the Unit de States by his private Secretary Mr. Coles:

To the Senate and House of Representatives, of the U. 8. I transmit to Congress copies of a communication from Mr. Russell to the Secretary of State. It is connected with the correspondence accom panying my message of the 12th inst. but had not at that date been received. JAMES MADISON

November 18, 1812.

DOCUMENTS

Accompanying the Message.

Mr. Russell to the Secretary of State.

Washington, Nov. 16, 1812. SIR-I have the honor to hand you here with an account of the conversation alluded to in a postcript to my letter of the 19th of Sept. and which I had not sufficient time then to copy.

I have the honor to be with great consideration and respect, sir, your obedient servant.

The Hon. James Monroe, Esq. &c. &c.

JONA. RUSSELL.

Mr. Russell to the Secretary of State.

London, Sept. 17, 1812. SIR-On the 12th inst. I had the honor to receive your letter of the 27th of July last.-I called immediately at the Foreign Office to prepare Lord Castlereagh, by imparting to him the nature and extent of my instructions, for the communication which it became me to make to him. His Lordship was in the country and I was obliged to write to him without previously seeing him. I however accompanied my official note (A) with a private letter (B) offering explanation, if required, and soliciting dispatch.

I waited until two o'clock, the 16th instant, without hearing from his Lordship, when I was much surprised at receiving a note (C) from Mr. Hamilton, the under secretary, indefinitely postponing an official reply.

To give more precision to the transaction, I instantly ad ressed to him answer (D) and a little before five o'clock on the same day, i received an invitation (E) from Lord Castlereagh, to meet him at his house that evening at nine o'cluck.

I waited on his lordship, at the time appointed, in company with Mr. Hamilton, at a table loaded with the records of American correspon dence, which they appeared to have been examining.

I was courteously received, and after a conversation of a few minutes on indifferent subjects I led the way to the business on which I came, by observing that I had once more been authorised to present the olive branch and hoped it would not be again rejected.

His lordship observed that he had desired the interview to ascertain, before he submit ed my communication of the 16th inst. to the Prince Regent, the form and nature of the powers under which I acted. To satisfy him at once on both the points I put into his hands your letter of the 27th of July. I the more willingly adopted this mode of procedure as,

*The notes here referred to have already been communicated to Congress.

VOL. II.-No. 3.

DOCUMENTS.

besides the confidence which its frankness was calculated to produce the letter itself would best, define my authority and prove the moderation and conciliatory temper ofmy government.

His lordship read it attentively-He then commented at some length both on the shape and substance of my powers. With regard to the former he observed that all my authority was contained in a letter from the Secretary of State, which, as my diplomatic functions had ceased, appeared but a scanty foundation on which to placethe important arrangement I had been instructed to propose. With regard to the extent of my powers, he could not perceive that they essentially differed from those under which I had brought forward the propositions contained in my note of the 24th of August. He considered that to enter with me into the understanding, required as a preliminary to a convention for an armistice, he would be compelled to act on unequal ground, as from his situation he must necessarily pledge his government, when, from the nature of my authority, I could give no similar pledge for mine. He could not therefore think of committing the British faith and leaving the American government free to disregard its engagements. Besides it did not appear to him that at the date of my last instructions the revocation of the orders in council on the 23d of June, had been received at Washington, and that great hopes were entertained of the favorable effect such intelligence would produce there. The question of impressment, he went on to observe, was attended with difficulties of which neither for my government appeared to. beaware. "Indeed," he continued, "there has evidently been much misapprehension on this subject, and an erroneous belief entertained that an arrangement, in regard to it, has been nearer an accomplishment than the facts will warrant. Even our friends in Congress, I mean, (observing perhaps some alteration in my countenance) "those who were opposed to going to war with us, have been so confident in this mistake that they have ascribed the failure of such an arrangement solely to the misconduct of the American government.-This error probably originated with Mr. King, for being much esteemed here, and always well receivedby the persons then in power, he seems to have misconstrued their readiness to listen to his representations, and their warm professions of a dispositionto remove the complaints of America, in relation to impressment, into a supposed conviction on their part of the propriety of adopting the plan which he had proposed. But Lord St. Vincent, whom he might have thought he had brought over to his opinions, appears nev er for a moment to have ceased to regard all arrangement on the subject to be attended with formidable, if not insurmountable obstacles. This is obvious from a letter which his Lordship addressed to Sir William Scott at that time." Here Lord Castlereagh read a letter, contained in the records before him, in which Lord St. Vincent states to Sir William Scott the zeal with which Mr. King had assailed him on the subject of impressment, confesses his own perplexity and total incompetency to discover any practical project for the safe discontinuance of that practice and asks for counsel and advice. "Thus you see," proceeded Lord Castlereagh, “that the confidense of Mr. King on this point was entirely unfounded."

"The extreme difficulty, if not total impracticability of any satisfactory arrangement for the discontinuance of impressment is most clearly manifested by the result of the negociation carried on between Messrs Monroe and Pinkney and Lords Auckland and Holland. The doctrines of which these noblemen had been the advocates, when in opposition, bound them by all the force of consistency to do every thing under their commission for the satisfaction of America relative to impressment, which the subject would possibly admit. There were many circumstances on that occasion peculiarly propitious to an amicable ar

angement on this point, had such an arrangement been at all attainable. Both parties accordingly appear to have exhausted their ingenuity in attempting to devise expedients satisfactorily to perform the office of impressment, and nothing can more conclusively demonstrate the inherent difficulty of the matter, and the utter impossibility of finding the expedient which they sought, than that all their labors, pursued on that occasion with unexampled diligence, cordiality and good faith, should have been in vain.”

His lordship now turned to a letter in a volume before him addressed at the close of the negociation by these commissioners to the American ministers, conceived in the kindest spirit of conciliation, in which they profess the most earnest desire to remove all cause of complaint on the part of America concerning impressment, regret that their endeavors had hitherto been ineffectual, lament the necessity of continuing the practice, and promise to provide as far as possible against the abuse of it.

"If," resumed his lordship, "such was the result of negociation entertained under circumstances so highly favorable, where the powers and the disposition of the parties were limited only by the difficulties of the subject, what reasonable expectation can be encouraged that in the actual state of things, with your circumscribed and imperfect authority, we can come to a more successful issue? I shall have to proceed in so weighty a concern with the utmost deliberation and circumspection; and it will be necessary for me to consult the great law officers of the crown. You are not aware of the great sensibility and jealousy of the people of England on this subject, and no administration could expect to remain in power that should consent to renounce the right of impressment, or to suspend the practice, without the certainty of an arrangement which should obviously be calculated most unequivocally to secure its object. Whether such an arrangement can be devised is extremely doubtful, but is very certain that you have no sufficient powers for its accomplishment."

Such was the substance, and in many parts, the language of his Lordship's discourse. To which I replied that the main object of my powers, being to effect a suspension of hostilities, their form could not be material. It was sufficient that they emanated from competent authority and were distinctly and clearly conferred. That in requiring as a condition, to an armistice a clear understanding relative to impressment and other points of controversy between the two countries, it was intended merely to lay the basis of an amicable adjustment and thereby to diminish the probability of a renewal of hostilities. To come to such an understanding, to be in itself informal, & which expressly left the details of the points which it embraced to be discussed and adjusted by 'commissioners to be hereafter appointed, was certainly within the instructions which I had received, and Icould, of course, thus tar pledge my government for its observance. I did not acknowledge the force of his objection, predicated on the inequality of our respective powers, nor perceive how the British faith would be particularly committed. The faith of both governments would be equally committed, for whatever was done under their respective authority; and although his lordship. might have power to go beyond the armistice and understanding for which I was instructed, yet there was no necessity for doing so, and while we acted within those limits we stood on equal ground. And were it otherwise yet, as the promise of the one party would be sole consideration for the promise of the other, should either fail in the perfor nance of its engagements, the other would necessarily be dischargel and the imputation of bad faith could alone attach to the first delinquent. Nor was I dismayed at the very formidable difficulties with which he had thought proper to array the subject of impressment,