“The best and most enlightened men of the country,”--who “considered her interests as completely identified with those of Great Britain,” and who thus concerted with Canning a policy intended to bring themselves into power as agents of Spencer Perceval and Lord Castlereagh,--were Senator Pickering and his friends. To effect this coalition with the British ministry Pickering exerted himself to the utmost. Not only by word of mouth, but also by letter, he plied the British envoy with argument and evidence. Although Rose, March 4, wrote to Canning in the very words of the Massachusetts senator, March 13 the senator wrote to Rose repeating his opinion:[185]-- “You know my solicitude to have peace preserved between the two nations, and I have therefore taken the liberty to express to you my opinion of the true point of policy to be observed by your Government toward the United States, in case your mission prove unsuccessful; that is, to let us alone; to bear patiently the wrongs we do ourselves. In one word, amidst the irritations engendered by hatred and folly, to maintain a dignified composure, and to abstain from war,--relying on this, that whatever disposition exists to provoke, there is none to commence a war on the part of the United States.” To support his views Pickering enclosed a letter from Rufus King. “I also know,” he continued, “that in the present unexampled state of the world our own best citizens consider the interests of the United States to be interwoven with those of Great Britain, and that our safety depends on hers.... Of the opinions and reasonings of such men I wish you to be possessed.” He held out a confident hope that the embargo would end in an overthrow of the Administration, and that a change in the head of the government would alter its policy “in a manner propitious to the continuance of peace.” A few days afterward he placed in Rose’s hands two letters from George Cabot. Finally, on the eve of Rose’s departure, March 22, he gave the British envoy a letter to Samuel Williams of London. “Let him, if you please, be the medium of whatever epistolary intercourse may take place between you and me.”[186] To these advances Rose replied in his usual tone of courteous superiority:--