was made by him; but this difference of view did not lead to friction. Pakenham told Buchanan he had received no instructions on the subject, but knew that his government would be glad to bring about peace by interposing its good offices. Buchanan replied that he was afraid formal mediation would prove a vain and "entangling" affair for the mediating power. So thought Pakenham, for he believed the United States would make territorial demands which England would not be willing to countenance or advise Mexico to accept. Buchanan added that we should be glad to have England persuade Mexico to listen to reason, since our government was anxious to establish peace on just and even generous terms (13Pakenham, no. 82, June 28, 1846). Pakenham concluded that our government relied on "the anxiety which England must feel, for the sake of her trade with Mexico and the safety of British mterests committed in so many ways in that country, to see peace reëstablished between the two Republics" (13Id., no. 93, July 13, 1846). Senator Archer hinted to Polk that he (Archer) could bring about mediation through his friend Pakenham, but met of course with no encouragement (Polk, Diary, Sept. 4, 1846).
15. This was described by Palmerston in Parliament as a definite offer of mediation (Morning Chronicle, Aug. 26). The settlement of the Oregon difficulty made such an offer more proper than it would have been at an earlier date.
16. Buchanan was absent from Washington at this time (Pakenham, no. 16). "According to the New York correspondent of the London Times, the Americans feared that unsuccessful mediation might be construed as giving some color of right to authoritative interposition (Times, Oct. 15, 1846).
17. British mediation. Polk, Diary, Sept. 4, 10, 11, 1846. 52To McLane, no. 44, July 27. 52McLane, nos. 55, 69, June 18; Aug. 15, 1846. 52Boyd, no. 3, Sept. 18. 13To Pakenham, no. 10, Aug. 18, 1846. 13Pakenham, nos. 82, 98, 99, 107, 116, 119, 1382, June 28; July 13, 29; Aug. 13; Sept. 13, 28; Nov. 23, 1846; no. 56, Apr. 28, 1847. London Times (Bentinck, Disraeli), Aug. 25; Oct. 15, 1846. 1Ms. speech of Aug. 6, 1846. Morning Chronicle, Aug. 26, 1847. Journal des Débats, (fop) June 30; Aug. 27, 1846.
Both of these British attempts to mediate were accompanied with similar offers to Mexico, which proved equally unfruitful (vol. ii, p. 368). At the end of October Bankhead was instructed to advise Mexico that, since the United States had rejected the British good offices, she should settle with us at once on the most favorable terms that she could obtain.
18. For the benefit of the Mexican government, the Foreign Office wrote to Bankhead (13no. 15), June 1, 1846: "She [Great Britain] would find herself engaged in a war with a Nation with whom she would have no personal cause of quarrel, in behalf of a Nation and Government which she has repeatedly warned in the, most friendly and urgent manner of their danger, and which, solely in consequence of their wilfull contempt of that warning, have at last plunged headlong down the precipice from which the British Government spared no efforts to save them"; and Bankhead was instructed to let Paredes know "the real state of the case without disguise." Aberdeen's thus declining to interfere on behalf of Mexico was particularly natural in view of the talk that had occurred with the Mexican minister at London while the Oregon issue was pending (vol. i, p. 115, and note 27 infra). As a step intended to settle that issue
