States or whether you, or Mr. Pinkney, can undertake to furnish Mr. Rose with such documents, as shall ensure his admission into the American ports, and a reception therein, suitable to the character with which he is invested? I have the honour to be, &c. GEORGE CANNING. James Monroe, Esq. &c. &c. &c. To Mr. Canning. Portland Place, Oct. 23, 1807. SIR, I have the honour to state, in reply to your letter of yesterday, that the case to which you alluded is specially provided for by the proclamation of the President. You will observe, on a view of that document, that an exception is made, from the prohibition it contains on other vessels, in favour of such ships of his majesty as may enter the ports of the United States with despatches from his majesty's government. Had the case of a publick minister, employed in a special mission to my government, not been comprised in that exception, as it clearly is, I have no hesitation in stating that he would be received without delay at any port at which he might arrive. I have the honour to add, that Mr. Pinkney and myself will be happy to give to his majesty's minister every facility in our power to secure him the reception at the port of his destination which is due to his publick character, and promote his speedy arrival at the scat of the government of the United States. I have the honour to be, &c. JAMES MONROE. The Right Hon. George Canning, &c. &c. &c. From Mr. Canning. Foreign Office, Oct 23, 1807. SIR, I have to acknowedge the honour of your answer to my letter of yesterday evening. It appears to me to be so important to have a clear understanding on the subject, to which that letter refers, that I cannot forbear requesting you to have the goodness to call at the foreign office to morrow at two o'clock, if that hour should suit your convenience. I have the honour to be, &c. GEORGE CANNING. James Monroe, Esq. &c. &c. &c. London, Oct. 28, 1807. SIR, I have the honour to send you a copy of a correspondence with Mr. Canning, touching a difficulty, which he supposed Mr. Rose might experience in entering the bay of Chesapeake, in consequence of the proclamation of the President. In the interview invited by his last note, 1 expressed my surprise, that any doubt should exist on the subject of it, and assured him, that Mr. Pinkney and myself would be responsible for Mr. Rose's prompt admission into our harbours, and arrival at Washington, without suffering the slighest molestation; on the contrary, that he should receive every attention and facility on the route which he might require. I told him, that no document. from us would be necessary for that purpose; but that, to put the question beyond all doubt, we would give him a passport, which should go to every object in detail, and that we would also give him letters of introduction to the governours of Maryland and Virginia, the states through which he would, pass, to be taken advantage of, if he found that they would be useful. With this explanation and arrangement Mr. Canning was satisfied. I also send you a copy of a letter from Mr. Rose, senior, and of my answer, relative to the mission of his son to the United States. Although Mr. Rose's letter is unofficial, I have thought it proper, in consideration of his near connection with the minister, and station in the government, to communicate it. I leave this to-morrow, to meet in the channel the Augustus, the ship in which I propose to sail with my family to the United States. She has left this port, and is on her way to Portsmouth, were she will receive us. Mr. Rose, by going in a frigate, will most probably arrive before me, and even before doctor Bullus. It is important that you should possess all the information which I can give respecting the business in which I have been lately engaged with Mr. Canning, and of Mr. Rose's mission, at the moment of his arrival. I have therefore thought it advisable to commit to him this letter, and a copy of my correspondence with Mr. Canning, as Mr. Pinkney and I have done our joint despatch. I expect to be at sea in a week from this date, and shall proceed to Washington immediately after my arrival in the United States, to communicate to you such further information as I may have, relative to the important concerns of our country in which I have been employed. I have the honour to be, &c. JAMES MONROE. No. III. Correspondence between Mr. Madison and Mr. Rose. Washington, Jan. 26, 1803. SIR,-Having had the honour to state to you, that I am expressly precluded by my instructions from entering upon any negotiation for the adjustment of the differences arising from the encounter of his majesty's ship Leopard and the frigate of the United States, the Chesapeake, as long as the proclamation of the President of the United States, of the 2d of July, 1807, shall be in force, I beg leave to offer you such farther explanation of the nature of that condition, as appears to me calculated to place the motives, under which it has been enjoined to me thus to bring it forward, in their true light. In whatever spirit that instrument was issued, it is sufficiently obvious, that it has been productive of considerable prejudice to his majesty's interests, as confided to his military and other servants in the United States, to the honour of his flag, and to the privileges of his ministers accredited to the American government. From the operation of this proclamation have unavoidably resulted effects of retaliation and self-assumed redress, which might be held to affect materially the question of the reparation due to the United States, especially inasmuch as its exe'cution has been persevered in after the knowledge of his majesty's early, unequivocal, and unsolicited disavowal of the unauthorized act of admiral Berkeley,-his disclaimer of the pretension exhibited by that officer to search the national ships of a friendly power for deserters, and the assurances of prompt and effectual reparation, all communicated, without loss of time, to the minister of the United States in London, so as not to leave a doubt as to his majesty's just and amicable intentions. But his majesty, making every allowance for the irritation which was excited, and the misapprehensions which existed, has authorized me to proceed in the negotiation upon the sole discontinuance of measures of so inimical a tendency. You are aware, sir, that any delay, which may have arisen in the adjustment of the present differences, is not imputable to an intention of procrastination on the part of his majesty's government; on the contrary, its anxiety to terminate as expeditiously as possible the discussion of a matter so interesting to both nations, has been evinced by the communication made by Mr. Secretary Canning to Mr. Monroe, before that minister of the United States was even informed of the encounter, and now by the promptitude with which it has despatched a special mission to this country for that express purpose. I can have no difficulty in stating anew to you, with res pect to the provisions of my instructions, calculated as they are to ensure an honourable adjustment of the important point in question, and to remove the impressions, which the late cause of difference may have excited in the minds of this nation, that I am authorized to express my conviction, that they are such as will enable me to terminate the negotiation amicably and satisfactorily. Having learnt from you, sir, that it is solely as a mea. sure of precaution, the provisions of the proclamation are now enforced, I must persuade myself, that a due consideration of his majesty's conduct in this transaction will remove as well any misapprehensions which may be entertained respecting his majesty's dispositions towards the United States, as the grounds upon which that enforcement rests, and the more so, as it has long been a matter of notoriety, that the orders issued to the officers of his majesty's navy, in his proclamation of the 16th October, 1807, afford ample security, that no attempt can again be made to assert a pretension, which his majesty from the first disavowed. I may add, that if his majesty has not commanded me to enter into the discussion of the other causes of complaint, 126 stated to arise from the conduct of his naval commanders in these seas, prior to the encounter of the Leopard and the Chesapeake, it was because it has been deemed improper to mingle them, whatever may be their merits, with the present matter, so much more interesting and important in its nature; an opinion originally and distinctly expressed by Mr. Monroe, and assented to by Mr. Secretary Canning. But if, upon this more recent and more weighty matter of discussion, upon which the proclamation mainly and materially rests, his majesty's amicable intentions are unequivocally evinced, it is sufficiently clear, that no hostile disposition can be supposed to exist on his part, nor can any views be attributed to his government, such as, requiring to be counteracted by measures of precaution, could be deduced from transactions which preceded that encounter. In offering these elucidations, I should observe, that the view in which I have brought forward the preliminary, which I have specified, is neither as to demand concession or redress, as for a wrong committed into such the claim to a discontinuance of hostile provisions cannot be construed; but it is simply to require a cessation of enactments injurious in their effects, and which, if persisted in, especially after these explanations, must evince a spirit of hostility, under which his majesty could not authorize the prosecution of the present negotiation, either consistently with his own honour, or with any well founded expectation of the renewal or duration of that good understanding between the two countries, which it is equally the interest of both to foster and to ameliorate. I have the honour to be, with the highest consideration, &c. G. H. ROSE. Department of State, March 5, 1808. SIR,-I have had the honour to receive and lay before the President your letter of the 26th January, in which you state, that you are "expressly precluded by your instructions from entering upon any negotiation for the adjustment of the differences arising from the encounter of his Britannick majesty's ship Leopard and the frigate of |