And our conversation ended.

Such, Monsieur le Duc, as far as my memory serves me, are the literal expressions employed by both of us.  Should you discover any inaccuracies in the relation which I have the honor to submit to you, it will give me pleasure, as it will be my duty, to correct them.  If, on the contrary, this relation should appear to you in every respect conformable to the truth, I take the liberty of claiming from your kindness a confirmation of it, for the reasons which I have already, I believe, sufficiently explained.

I eagerly avail myself of this occasion, Monsieur le Duc, to renew the assurances of very high consideration with which I have the honor to be, your excellency’s most obedient, humble servant,

THOS.  P. BARTON.

No. 4.

The Duke de Broglie to Mr. Barton.

[Translation.]

E.

PARIS, October 26, 1835.

T.P.  BARTON,

Charge de Affaires of the United States.

SIR:  I have received the letter which you did me the honor to address to me on the 24th of this month.

You are desirous to give your Government a faithful account of the conversation which you had with me on the 20th.  While communicating to me a statement of that conversation you request me to indicate the involuntary errors which I may remark in it.  I appreciate the motives which influence you and the importance which you attach to the exactness of this statement, and I therefore hasten to point out three errors which have found their way into your report, acknowledging at the same time its perfect conformity on all other points with the explanations interchanged between us.

In reply to your question whether the King’s Government would name any fixed and determinate period at which it would be disposed to pay the twenty-five millions you make me say: 

“To-morrow, if necessary.  When the Government of the United States shall by a written official communication have expressed its regret at the misunderstanding which has taken place between the two Governments, assuring us that this misunderstanding is founded on an error—­that it did not intend to call in question the good faith of His Majesty’s Government,” etc.

Now, this is what I really said: 

“To-morrow, to-day, immediately, if the Government of the United States is ready on its part to declare to us, by addressing its claim (reclamation) to us officially in writing that it regrets the misunderstanding which has arisen between the two countries; that this misunderstanding is founded upon a mistake, and that it never entered into its intention (pensee) to call in question the good faith of the French Government nor to take a menacing attitude toward France.”

By the terms of your report I am made to have continued thus: 

“In the dispatch to M. Pageot we gave the views of our Government on this question.  Mr. Forsyth not having thought proper to accept a copy of that dispatch, and having said that the Government of the United States could not receive the communication in that form,” etc.