tinctly military, and could be met only by measures
of a similar character, to which existing international law was
unequal. The corner-stone was the military power of Napoleon, which,
by nullifying the independence of the continental states, compelled
them to adopt the methods of the Berlin Decree contrary to their will,
and contrary to the wishes, the interests, and the bare well-being of
their populations. "You will see," wrote an observant American
representative abroad, "that Napoleon stalks at a gigantic stride
among the pygmy monarchs of Europe, and bends them to his policy. It
is even an equal chance if Russia, after all her blustering, does not
accede to his demands without striking a blow."[185] To meet the
danger Great Britain opposed a maritime dominion, equally exclusive,
equally founded on force, and exercised in equally arbitrary fashion
over the populations of the sea.

At the end of March, 1807, the British Cabinet with which Monroe and
Pinkney had negotiated went out of office. Their successors came in
prepared for extreme action in consequence of the Berlin Decree; but
their hand was for the moment stayed, because its enforcement remained
in abeyance, owing to the Emperor's continued absence in the field.
Towards the claims of the United States their attitude was likely to
be uncompromising; and the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Canning, to
whom fell the expression of the Government's views and purposes,
possessed an adroitness in fastening upon minor weaknesses in a case,
and postponing to such the consideration of the important point at
issue, which, coupled with a peremptoriness of tone often bordering on
insolence, effected nothing towards conciliating a people believed to
be both unready and unwilling to fight. The American envoys, at their
first interview, in April, met him with the proposition of their
Government to reopen negotiations on the basis of the treaty of
December 31. Learning from them that the treaty would not be ratified
without a satisfactory arrangement concerning impressment, Canning
asked what relations would then obtain between the two nations. The
reply was that the United States Government wished them placed
informally on the most friendly footing; that is, that an
understanding should be reached as to practical action to be expected
on either side, without concessions of principle.[186] As final
instructions from Washington were yet to come, it was agreed that the
matter