"I am instructed to ask another question: Will His Majesty's Government
name any fixed determined period when they will be disposed to pay those
funds?"
To this question the following was your excellency's answer, as I
understood it:
"To-morrow, if necessary. When the Government of the United States shall
by a written official communication have expressed its regret at the
misunderstanding which has taken place between the two Governments,
assuring us that this misunderstanding was founded on an error--that
it did not intend to call in question the good faith of His Majesty's
Government--the funds are there; we are ready to pay. In the dispatch
to M. Pageot we gave the views of our Government on this question.
Mr. Forsyth not having thought proper to accept a copy of that dispatch,
and having said that the Government of the United States could not
receive a communication in such a form, I have nothing to add. I am
forced to retrench myself behind that dispatch. If the Government of the
United States does not give this assurance, we shall be obliged to think
that this misunderstanding is not the result of an error, and the
business will stop there."
To your excellency's offer to communicate to me the dispatch to M.
Pageot I replied that as my instructions had no reference to that
question I did not think myself authorized to discuss it.
After some minutes I rose and said:
"In a short time I shall have the honor of writing to your excellency."
You answered:
"I shall at all times receive with pleasure any communication addressed
to me on the part of the Government of the United States."
And our conversation ended.
Such, Monsieur le Duc, as far as my memory serves me, are the literal
expressions employed by both of us. Should you discover any inaccuracies
in the relation which I have the honor to submit to you, it will give me
pleasure, as it will be my duty, to correct them. If, on the contrary,
this relation should appear to you in every respect conformable to the
truth, I take the liberty of claiming from your kindness a confirmation
of it, for the reasons which I have already, I believe, sufficiently
explained.
I eagerly avail myself of this occasion, Monsieur le Duc, to renew the
assurances of very high consideration with which I have the honor to be,
your excellency's most obedient, humble servant,