He urged that England ought to recognize the independence of
the revolted provinces, and he deprecated the conquest or cession of
any part of them. [Footnote: Stratford Canning to George Canning,
June 6, 1823, MSS. Foreign Office, America, CLXXVI; Adams, Memoirs,
VI., 151; cf. Reddaway, Monroe Doctrine, 83.]
The first impression of the British minister, on hearing Adams's
emphasis on the community of interests between the two nations, was
that the secretary was suggesting an alliance; and it may well have
been that Canning was encouraged by the American attitude to make
overtures to Rush, the American minister, shortly after these
dispatches must have reached him. On August 16, 1823, and three
times thereafter, Canning proposed a joint declaration by England
and the United States against any project by a European power of "a
forcible enterprise for reducing the colonies to subjugation, on the
behalf or in the name of Spain; or which meditates the acquisition
of any part of them to itself, by cession or by conquest.
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