No new measure was suggested, after June 10, to provide for the chance that Erskine’s arrangement might fail, and that the Order in Council of April 26, 1809, might prove to be a permanent system. Congress seemed disposed to indulge the merchants to the utmost in their eagerness for trade. The nearest approach to suspicion was shown in the House by appropriating $750,000 for fortifications. Randolph, Macon, Eppes, and Richard M. Johnson tried to reduce the amount to $150,000. The larger appropriation was understood to mean an intention of preparing for attack, and eighty-four members sustained the policy against a minority of forty-seven; but notwithstanding this vote and the anxiety caused by the new Order in Council, Congress decided to stop enlistments for the army; and by an Act approved June 28 the President was authorized, “in the event of a favorable change in our foreign relations,” to reduce the naval force, although the words of the Act implied doubt whether the favorable change would take place. Nothing could be happier for Madison than this situation, where all parties were held in check not only by his success but by his danger. So completely was discipline restored, that June 27 he ventured to send the name of J. Q. Adams a second time to the Senate as minister to Russia; and nineteen Republicans confirmed the nomination, while but one adhered to the opinion that the mission was unnecessary. The power of England over America was never more strikingly shown than by the sudden calm which fell on the country, in full prospect of war with France, at a word from a British minister. As Canning frowned or smiled, faction rose to frenzy or lay down to slumber throughout the United States. No sooner did the news of Erskine’s arrangement reach Quebec May 1, than Sir James Craig recalled his secret agent, John Henry, from Boston, where he still lingered. “I am cruelly out of spirits,” wrote Secretary Ryland to Henry,[70] “at the idea of Old England truckling to such a debased and accursed government as that of the United States;” but since this was the case, Henry’s services could no longer be useful. He returned to Montreal early in June. June 28 Congress adjourned, leaving the Executive, for the first time in many years, almost without care, until the fourth Monday in November. CHAPTER V. ERSKINE’S despatches were received by Canning May 22, and the “Morning Post” of the next day printed the news with approval: “Upon this pleasing event we sincerely congratulate the public.” The “Times” of May 24 accepted the arrangement: “We shall not urge anything against the concessions.” May 25, with “considerable pain though but little surprise,” the same newspaper announced that Erskine was disavowed by the Government.