There the matter might have rested, had not Madison carried the new “canons” beyond the point of endurance. December 6, four days after the dinner at the White House, the British minister was to dine with the Secretary of State. Pichon and Yrujo were again present, and all the Cabinet with their wives. Yrujo’s report described the scene that followed. “I should observe,” said he, “that until then my wife and I had enjoyed in the houses of Cabinet ministers the precedence of which we had been deprived in the President’s house; but on this day the Secretary of State too altered his custom, without informing us beforehand of his resolution, and took to table the wife of the Secretary of the Treasury. This unexpected conduct produced at first some confusion, during which the wife of the British minister was left without any one giving her his hand, until her husband advanced, with visible indignation, and himself took her to table.” Even Pichon, though pleased to see the British minister humbled, felt his diplomatic pride a little scandalized at this proceeding. He admitted that it was an innovation, and added,-- “There is no doubt that Mr. Madison in this instance wished to establish in his house the same formality as at the President’s, in order to make Mr. Merry feel more keenly the scandal he had made; but this incident increased it.” The scandal which Merry had made consisted in saying that he believed his treatment at the White House was a premeditated insult against his country. Madison’s course took away any remaining doubt on the subject in his mind. Merry became bitter. He wrote home informally:[269]-- “On this occasion, also, the _pas_ and the preference in every respect was taken by, and given to, the wives of the Secretaries of the Departments (a set of beings as little without the manners as without the appearance of gentlewomen), the foreign ministers and their wives being left to take care of themselves. In short the latter are now placed here in a situation so degrading to the countries they represent, and so personally disagreeable to themselves, as to have become almost intolerable. The case yesterday was so marked and so irritating that I determined to hand Mrs. Merry myself to the table, and to place ourselves wherever we might conveniently find seats.” Merry then received an official explanation that Jefferson invariably gave precedence to the wives of his Cabinet ministers, and that he made no exceptions in favor of foreigners in his rule of _pêle-mêle_.[270] Merry notified Lord Hawkesbury to that effect. He did not fail to point out the signs which indicated to him that these proceedings were but part of a general plan intended to press on the British government. In truth, the whole issue lay in the question whether that intent influenced Jefferson’s behavior.