“Closely related we are, sir, but I believe this is the only instance in which we are not treated as aliens,” returned Mr. Morris, with a dry irony that caused the Duke to flush and move uneasily in his chair.

“You speak of a speedy remedy, Mr. Morris,” said Mr. Pitt, hastily, taking up the conversation.  “Have you any suggestions as to what remedy might be employed?”

“I would suggest certificates of citizenship from the Admiralty Court of America to our seamen,” replied Mr. Morris, promptly.  Both Mr. Pitt and the Duke of Leeds looked somewhat surprised at this bold and concise answer.

“’Tis a good idea,” said Mr. Pitt, after an instant’s hesitation, “and worthy of mature consideration.”

“And now, gentlemen, I would like to again place before you these stipulations in the treaty existing between America and England which are as yet unfulfilled, and would urge you to engage that they will no longer be neglected,” said Mr. Morris, content to have made his point in regard to the impressment of seamen.

“Suppose you enumerate them in the order of their importance from your point of view and let us discuss the situation,” said Mr. Pitt, and he settled himself in his chair and listened with undivided attention to Mr. Morris, parrying with great animation that gentleman’s thrusts (which were made again and again with the utmost shrewdness and coolness), and avoiding, whenever possible, a positive promise or a direct answer to his demands.

In this conversation Mr. Calvert joined but once—­when appealed to by Mr. Pitt on the subject of the frontier posts.

“Mr. Morris has a new variation on the old theme of ’Heads I win, tails you lose,’” he said, turning jocularly to Calvert.  “He insists that the frontier posts are worth nothing to us, and yet he insists they are most necessary to you.”

“England and America are so widely separated, sir,” replied Calvert, smiling, “that it would seem to be well to respect laws which Nature has set, and keep them so.  Near neighbors are seldom good ones, and, to keep the peace between us, ’twere well to keep the distance, also.”

“We do not think it worth while to go to war about these posts,” said Mr. Morris, rising and bowing to Mr. Pitt and his Grace of Leeds, “but we know our rights and will avail ourselves of them when time and circumstance suit.”

“Another fruitless effort,” he said, when they had been ushered out and were in the carriage and driving along Whitehall.  “I think there is little chance of making a new commercial treaty when they will not fulfil the peace treaty already in existence.  I caught the drift of Mr. Pitt’s suggestion about mutual accommodation—­’twas but a snare to trip us up into repudiating the old treaty.”

“Yes,” said Calvert, laughing, “a Pittfall.”