DESPATCHES, KEPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 141 



were it not that other objects of interest to both nations were now 

 associated with it in a way to clothe the proposition with a new 

 aspect. 



He answered that the British Government would certainly be 

 willing to enter upon a negotiation on the commercial relations of 

 the two countries, but that he had no authority to say that the colonial 

 system could be essentially altered; broken down it could not be. I 

 said, that if it was not to be departed from, or in no further degree 

 than the four articles had imported, as those articles had already 

 been rejected, it did not appear to me that any advantage would be 

 likely to arise from going into the negotiation. He replied that he 

 was not prepared to answer definitely upon all or any of the points, 

 but would lay them before the Cabinet, and let me know the result. 

 He professed earnestly, in the course of the conversation, the desire 

 which this Government had to see the commerce of the two countries 

 stand upon the best footing of intercourse, the stake to each being 

 so great, and promising, with the growth of the United States, to be 

 so much greater. 



In the event of a negotiation, upon the grounds I had explained, 

 not being opened, he asked if I could inform him what -the intentions 

 of my Government were relative to the commercial intercourse be- 

 tween the two countries, it being, for obvious reasons, desirable soon 

 to know. Here I did not hesitate to announce that, in such an event, 

 which I still hoped would not be the case, it was willing simply to 

 renew the existing convention of 1815, thus keeping this instrument 

 distinct from all other questions of a commercial nature, if the British 

 Government preferred it. This communication, I thought, he received 

 with evident satisfaction. He remarked that it would rescue the com- 

 mercial relations from all danger of a chasm, and made known, in 

 immediate reply, the readiness of his Government to acquiesce in such 

 a course. 



On the 22d I received a note from him requesting to see me again 

 at the Foreign Office on the 23d. I was there accordingly. Mr. 

 Robinson, who is now a member of the Cabinet, as well as president 

 of the Board of Trade, was present. It was the first occasion upon 

 which any third person had been associated with Lord Castlereagh 

 at any of our official interviews. 



His Lordship commenced by saying that he had laid my proposals 

 before the Cabinet, and that it had been agreed to enter upon the 

 general negotiation ; that is, one which should embrace all the points 

 I had stated. In relation to the great commercial question, he begged 

 I would understand that the British Government did not pledge itself 

 beforehand to a departure from its colonial system in a degree beyond 

 what it had already offered ; but that it sincerely was desirous to make 

 the attempt, and unequivocally wished to bring the whole commercial 

 relations of the two countries into view, willing to hope, though 

 abstaining from promises, that some modification of that system, 

 mutually beneficial, might be the result of frank and full discussions 

 renewed at the present junction. I replied that I knew my Govern- 

 ment would hear this determination with great satisfaction; that it 

 would cordially join in the hope that the new effort might be pro- 

 ductive of advantage to both countries, and strengthen the ties of 

 good intercourse that should unite them. 



