He also informed Mr.Gallatin that the mediation of Russia had been refused, and that the British government would express its desire to treat separately and directly either at London or Gottenburg.

He warned Mr.Gallatin that an opinion prevailed in the British public that the United States were engaged to France by a secret political connection, which belief, though perhaps not shared by the government, would lead it to consider the persevering of the American commission upon bringing the insulated question before the powers of the Continent as a touchstone of their sincerity.

He hoped that the American commissioners would come at once in contact with the British ministers, and pointed out the hesitation that every minister would feel at giving instructions on a matter so delicate as that "involving the rights and duties of sovereign and subject." He then declared that there was in England a strong desire for peace and for ending a contest in which the "two countries could only tease and weaken each other without any practical result," and at a time when England desired to carry her resources into the "more important field of European contest." He then gave Castlereagh's assurance, that the cartel-ship, the Neptune, should be respected, and expressed his own personal hope that he should ere long be gratified by seeing it bring, with the commissioners, the hope of peace to the shores of England.
Meanwhile Mr.Gallatin was engaged in explaining the American case to Romanzoff by conversation and by a written statement of the facts in the form of an unofficial note to the emperor.

On August 10 word was received from the Emperor Alexander authorizing the renewal of the offer of mediation; and shortly after a letter from General Moreau, written to Mr.Gallatin from the imperial headquarters at Hrushova, assured him of his sympathy and assistance.

His relations with Gallatin were of long standing and of an intimate nature.