The scope of this work will not admit of entering into all the details of the conferences in respect of the treaty which was shortly afterwards entered into between Great Britain and the United States, and which had become the more necessary after the unfortunate encounter[328] between the _Chesapeake_ and H.M.S. _Leopard_ in Hampton Roads, where England was held by various authorities to be in the wrong. It is now generally admitted that the commissioners on both sides were animated by a sincere desire to establish a firm and lasting friendship between the two countries, on terms mutually advantageous, though it is deeply to be lamented that their efforts at negotiation were at times much thwarted by popular clamour on both sides the water.[329] Considering the state of public opinion in America, and the instructions which they appear to have received from their government, the American commissioners, in particular, evinced in the strongest manner their disposition to conciliation, when, after many fruitless conferences held in the hope of devising some adequate substitute for the practice of impressing on the high seas, they consented, contrary to their instructions, to proceed with the other articles of the treaty, pledging the government of Great Britain “to issue instructions for the observance of the greatest caution in the impressment of seamen, and of the greatest care to preserve citizens of the United States from any molestation or injury, and to afford immediate redress upon any representation of injury sustained by them;” engaging besides at any future period “to entertain the discussion of any plan that should be devised to secure the interests of both States, without any injury to rights to which they are respectively attached.” [Sidenote: Circuitous route.]