3306. FRIENDSHIP WITH ENGLAND, Mr. Merry and.—
I thought that in
the administration of Mr. Addington, I discovered
some dispositions towards justice,
and even friendship and respect for us, and
began to pave the way for cherishing these
dispositions and improving them into ties of
mutual good-will. But we had then a Federal
minister there, whose dispositions to believe
himself, and to inspire others with a
belief in our sincerity, his subsequent conduct
has brought into doubt; and poor Merry,
the English minister here, had learned nothing
of diplomacy but its suspicions, without
head enough to distinguish when they were
misplaced. Mr. Addington and Mr. Fox
passed away too soon to avail the two countries
of their dispositions.—
To James Maury. Washington ed. vi, 53.
Ford ed., ix, 350.
(M.
April. 1812)
