Gallatin replied to Mr.Baring that no information of the refusal of Great Britain to the mediation had been received, but, even if it had, the commission was not authorized to negotiate in any other manner.

They were, however, competent to treat of commerce without mediation.

He declined to discuss the objection of Great Britain to the mediation of Russia, confining himself to an expression of ignorance in America of any such feeling on the part of the British ministry, and of the confidence placed in the personal character of the emperor, which was considered a sufficient pledge of impartiality; while the selection of a sovereign at war with France was clear evidence that America neither had nor wished to have any political connection with that power.

That he himself believed an arrangement to be practicable, he said to Mr.Baring, was evident from the fact that he had given up his political existence, and separated himself from his family.

His opinion was, that while neither nation would be induced to abandon its rights or pretensions in the matter of impressment, an arrangement might be made by way of experiment which would reserve to both their respective abstract rights, real or assumed.
To Moreau he wrote stating his hope that, notwithstanding the first objections of Great Britain, the mediation of the emperor would be accepted, and he asked the general for his personal interposition to this end.