You will perceive, in the second and third paragraphs of the unofficial paper, a distinct disavowal of the offensive views which the appointment of a mere charge d'affaires and other circumstances appeared originally to indicate. We are now told, in writing, that the delay in appointing a minister plenipotentiary was occasioned, in the first instance, not by such considerations as have been supposed, but "by an earnest desire of rendering the appointment satisfactory to the United States, and conducive to the effectual establishment of harmony between the two governments;" that more recently "the state of his majesty's government rendered it impossible to make the intended appointment;" and that lord Wellesley was therefore "concerned to find, by my letter of the 14th of January, that the government of the United States should be induced to suppose that any indisposition could exist, on the part of his majesty's government, to place the British mission in America on the footing most acceptable to the United States, as soon as might be practicable, consistently with the convenience of affairs in this country." The two papers are evidently calculated to prevent me from acting upon my late request of an audience of leave; and they certainly put it in my power, if they do not make it my duty, to forbear to act upon it. I have it under consideration, (looking to the instructions contained in your letter of the 15th of November,) what course I ought to pursue. It is at any rate my intention to return to America in the Essex, as I shall doubtless have the President's permission in due season to do, in consequence of my letter to you of the 24th of November. I have the honour to be, &c. WM. PINKNEY. Robert Smith, Esq. &c. No. 1. [Marked "private."] Lord Wellesley to Mr. Pinkney. Foreign Office, February 15, 1811. SIR, In the various unofficial communications which I have had the honour to make to you, respecting the appointment of a minister plenipotentiary from the king to the United States, I have endeavoured to explain to you, in the most distinct manner, the circumstances which had delayed that appointment; and I have expressed my intention to recommend that it should be carried into effect as soon as the situation of his majesty's government might permit. The delay was occasioned, in the first instance (as I stated to you repeatedly) by an earnest desire of rendering the appointment satisfactory to the United States, and conducive to the effectual establishment of harmony between the two governments. Since that period of time the state of his majesty's government rendered it impossible to make the intended appointment. I was therefore concerned to find, by your letter of the 14th of January, that the government of the United States should be induced to suppose that any indisposition could exist, on the part of his majesty's government, to place the British mission in America on the footing most acceptable to the United States, as soon as might be practicable, consistently with the convenience of affairs in this country. In pursuance of the intention, so often declared to you, his royal highness the prince regent has been pleased, in the name and on behalf of his majesty, to appoint Mr.. Foster, (lately charged with his majesty's affairs in Sweden) to be his majesty's envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the United States; and that appointment will be notified in the next gazette. You will, of course, exercise your own judgment, under these circumstances, respecting the propriety of requiring an audience of leave, on the grounds which you have stated. I have the honour to be, &c. WELLESLEY. No. 2. Lord Wellesley to Mr. Pinkney. Foreign Office, February 15, 1811. SIR,-Having submitted to his royal highness the prince regent your desire to have an audience of leave, with a view to your return to America, I am commanded by his royal highness to inform you that he will be prepared to receive you, at Carlton house, on Tuesday the 19th instant. At the same time, I am commanded to inform you, that his royal highness, in the name and on the behalf of his majesty, has been pleased to appoint Augustus Foster, esquire, (lately charged with his majesty's affairs in Sweden) to be his majesty's envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the United States. I have the honour to be, &c. WELLESLEY. Mr. Pinkney to Mr. Smith, Secretary of State. London; February 18, 1811. SIR,-The result of my reflections on lord Wellesley's two communications of the 15th instant, will be found in my letter to him of yesterday's date, of which I now transmit a copy. It appeared to me that the appointment of a minister. plenipotentiary to the United States was nothing, or rather worse than nothing, if the orders in council were to remain in force; the blockade of May, 1806, to be unrepealed; the affair of the Chesapeake to continue at large, and the other urgent questions between us to remain. unsettled. The "posture of our relations," as you have expressed it in your letter of the 15th of November, would not be "satisfactorily changed" merely by such an appointment; and of course my functions could not be resumed upon the sole foundation of it. I have put it to lord Wellesley to say explicitly, whether full and satisfactory arrangement is intended, before I answer his official letter concerning my audience of leave. If he is prepared to do at once what we require, or to instruct the new minister to do at Washington what does not demand immediate interference here, I shall think it my duty to forbear to take my leave on the 26th. If he declines a frank reply, or refuses our demands, I shall press for my audience and put an end to my mission. I have the honour to be, &c. WM. PINKNEY. The Secretary of State of the U. States. Mr. Pinkney to Lord Wellesley. Great Cumberland Place, February 17, 1811. MY LORD, Before I reply to your official communication of the 15th instant, you will perhaps allow me, in acknowledging the receipt of the unofficial paper which accompanied it, to trouble you with a few words. From the appointment which you have done me the honour to announce to me, of a minister plenipotentiary to the United States, as well as from the language of your private letter, I conclude that it is the intention of the British government to seek immediately those adjustments with America, without which, that appointment can produce no beneficial effect. I presume, that, for the restoration of harmony between the two countries, the orders in council will be relinquished without delay; that the blockade of May 1806 will be annulled; that the case of the Chesapeake will be arranged in the manner heretofore intended, and, in general, that all such just and reasonable acts will be done as are necessary to make us friends. My motives will not, I am sure, be misinterpreted, if, anxious to be enabled so to regulate my conduct in the execution of my instructions as that the best results may be accomplished, I take the liberty to request such explanations on these heads as your lordship may think fit to give me. I ought to add, that, as the levee of his royal highness the prince regent has been postponed until Tuesday the 26th instant, I have supposed that my audience of leave is postponed to the same day; and that I have, on that ground, undertaken to delay my reply to your official communication until I receive an answer to this letter. I have the honour to be, &c. &c. WM. PINKNEY. The Most Noble the Marquis Wellesley. Mr. Pinkney to Mr. Smith. London, Feb. 24, 1811. SIR, I received last night lord Wellesley's answer (of which a copy is enclosed) to my letter of the 17th instant. He has marked it private, and speaks of my letter to him as being private also. My fetter, however, was not so marked or intended; and his answer, however marked, is essentially an official communication of great importance. His letter amounts to an explicit declaration that the orders in council are to be persisted in; and it furnishes no evidence of a disposition to give us any thing but vague and general professions on any subject. I did not, therefore, hesitate to send him a reply, declaring my intention to take leave on Thursday the 28th, in pursuance of my request of the 13th, and declining to attend the prince's levee on Tuesday the 26th. Of this reply a copy is now transmitted. To mistake the views of this government is now impossible. They are such as I always believed them to be, and will, I hope, be resisted with spirit and firmness. In shaping my course on this occasion, I have endeavoured to conform to the orders of the President, signified to me in your letter of the 15th of November. With those orders, as I understand them, my own wishes certainly concurred; but I trust that I have not suffered inclination to influence my interpretation of them. According to your letter, my functions were to be considered as suspended on the receipt of it, if the British government had not then appointed a minister plenipotentiary to the United States. Such an appointment had not at that time been made, and consequently the suspension took place. Upon a careful consideration of your letter, it appeared to me to look to a REVIVAL of my functions, in the event of "a satisfactory change in the posture of our relations" with this country. I could not indeed find in it any precise provision to that effect; but there was apparently room for such a construction; and I have already informed you, that, however anxious to close my mission and retire from the publick service, I was disposed to act, for a few weeks, upon that implication, in case such a change occurred in our relations as I deemed a satisfactory one. It could not be imagined that the appointment of Mr. Foster produced that change; and, supposing it to be left, in some degree at least to my discretion to determine in what it should consist, I had no difficulty in deciding that the immediate repeal of the orders in council and the blockade of May 1806, a distinct pledge on the affair of the Chesapeake, and a manifestation of a disposition |