Although Monroe thought this reply to be “addressed in rather a harsh tone,” as was certainly the case, he considered it intended to concede the essential point, and he decided to say no more without instructions. He might well be satisfied, for Canning’s “surprise” was a mild expression of public feeling. Hitherto the British press had shown no marked signs of the insanity which sometimes seized a people under the strain of great excitement, but the “Chesapeake” affair revealed the whole madness of the time. August 6, three days after Canning had disavowed pretension to search national vessels, the “Morning Post” published an article strongly in favor of Berkeley and war. “Three weeks blockade of the Delaware, the Chesapeake, and Boston Harbor would make our presumptuous rivals repent of their puerile conduct.” August 5 the “Times” declared itself for Berkeley, and approved not only his order, but also its mode of execution. The “Courier” from the first defended Berkeley. Cobbett’s peculiar powers of mischief were never more skilfully exerted:-- “I do not pretend to say that we may not in this instance have been in the wrong, because there is nothing authentic upon the subject; nor am I prepared to say that our right of search, _in all cases_, extends to ships of war. But of this I am certain, that if the laws of nations do not allow you to search for deserters in a friend’s territory, neither do they allow that friend to inveigle away your troops or your seamen, to do which is an act of hostility; and I ask for no better proof of inveigling than the enlisting and refusing to give up such troops or seamen.” Owing to his long residence in the United States, Cobbett was considered a high authority on American affairs; and he boldly averred that America could not go to war without destroying herself as a political body. More than half the people of America, he said, were already disgusted with the French bias of their government. In the face of a popular frenzy so general, Monroe might feel happy to have already secured from Canning an express disavowal of the pretension to search ships of war. He was satisfied to let the newspapers say what they would while he waited his instructions. A month passed before these arrived. September 3 Monroe had his next interview, and explained the President’s expectations,--that the men taken from the “Chesapeake” should be restored, the offenders punished, a special mission sent to America to announce the reparation, and the practice of impressment from merchant-vessels suppressed.[27] Canning listened with civility, for he took pride in tempering the sternness of his policy by the courtesy of his manner. He made no serious objection to the President’s demands so far as they concerned the “Chesapeake;” but when Monroe came to the abandonment of impressment from merchant-vessels, he civilly declined to admit it into the discussion.