DEPARTMENT OF STATE, August 12. 1816.

The Right Honble. Mr BAGOT

Sir I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 6th of this month, by which, you inform me, that altho' you have full confidence, that an agreement will finally be entered into by our governments, to limit in a satisfactory manner, the naval force to be maintained by them on the Lakes, you consider it your duty to submit to your government, the project which I lately communicated to you to that effect, and to wait its orders before you can proceed to make a definitive arrangement on the subject. You intimate however that you are willing to give effect to any arrangement, on which we may agree, for suspending in the mean time, the farther construction and equipment of armed vessels on the Lakes, and for abstaining from farther exertion there.

To this delay no objection is entertained, provided such a provisional arrangement is made, as may accomplish the just objects which our governments have in view. This arrangement however, like the other, should be equal. In the same spirit, therefore, I now propose the regulations stated in my former Note, to be adopted as a provisional arrangement. If your powers authorize, and you approve those regulations, on being assured that you will adopt a similar measure, an order will be immediately issued by this government, for carrying them fully into effect.

If your powers do not extend to this object, but are confined exclusively to the suspension of the further augmentation of the naval force on the Lakes, I have then to observe, that on receiving from you a statement, of the force which your government now has, on the Lakes, with an assurance that its further augmentation shall be suspended, an order will be immediately issued by this government, for confining the naval force of the United States there, strictly within the same limit.

I have the honor to be &c.

JAMES MONROE.