ground. Mr.
Adams, never lacking in courage, actually wished to argue with them
that it would be for the interests of Great Britain not less than of
the United States if Canada should be ceded to the latter power.
Unfortunately his colleagues would not support him in this audacious
policy, the humor of which is delicious. It would have been infinitely
droll to see how the British Commissioners would have hailed such a
proposition, by way of appropriate termination of a conflict in which
the forces of their nation had captured and ransacked the capital city
of the Americans!

On August 21 the Englishmen invited the Americans to dinner on the
following Saturday. "The chance is," wrote Mr. Adams, "that before
that time the whole negotiation will be at an end." The banquet,
however, did come off, and a few more succeeded it; feasts not marked
by any great geniality or warmth, except perhaps occasionally warmth
of discussion. So sure were the Americans that they were about to
break off the negotiations that Mr. Adams began to consider by (p. 086)
what route he should return to St. Petersburg; and they declined to
renew the tenure of their quarters for more than a few days longer.
Like alarms were of frequent occurrence, even almost to the very day
of agreement. On September 15, at a dinner given by the American
Commissioners, Lord Gambier asked Mr. Adams whether he would return
immediately to St. Petersburg. "Yes," replied Mr. Adams, "that is, if
you send us away." His lordship "replied with assurances how deeply he
lamented it, and with a hope that we should one day be friends again."
On the same occasion Mr. Goulburn said that probably the last note of
the Americans would "terminate the business," and that they "must
fight it out." Fighting it out was a much less painful prospect for
Great Britain just at that juncture than for the United States, as the
Americans realized with profound anxiety. "We so fondly cling to the
vain hope of peace, that every new proof of its impossibility operates
upon us as a disappointment," wrote Mr. Adams. No amount of pride
could altogether conceal the fact that the American Commissioners
represented the worsted party, and though they never openly said so
even among themselves, yet indirectly they were obliged to recognize
the truth. On November 10 we find Mr. Adams proposing to make (p. 087)
concessions not permitted by their instructions, because, as he said:--

"I felt so