118 University of California Publications in History
avowed & true Poliey of Great Britain being in the existing state of the
World, to appease controversy, & to secure if possible for all states a long
interval of Repose, the first object to be desired, is a settlement of these
differences upon reasonable term."

 RuesIm EVASION
Spain meanwhile had appealed to all the major Powers of the
Continent for sympathy and aid in the matter of encroachments
by the United States and had received polite but largely evasive
answers from all. To Russia, an urgent plea was made for diplo-
matic aid at Washington, although the idea of a definite mediation,
and of a cession of either Florida or Texas to the Czar, never went
beyond the stage of discussion.
 Russia's attitude toward the Spanish negotiations with the
United States does not appear to have been one of great concern.
The change in Tatistchef's relationship with Pizarro, from friend-
liness to antagonism, which is said to have cost the latter his office
eventually, affected likewise the Russian view on the treaty plan,
a favorite project of Pizarro's. The reply of the St. Petersburg
government to the request for aid was of no value to Spain. The
Spanish minister, Francisco de Zea Bermidez, wrote from St.
Petersburg in May, 1818, that His Imperial Majesty regretted the
hostile conduct of the United States, and had instructed the new
Russian minister in Washington to use his good offices to avoid
a break between that country and Spain." Count Capodistrias,
Russian foreign minister, had sent word to Zea Bermuidez that the
influence of his government might be "more efficacious," and its
language "more firm and pronounced," if the United States were
bound to the Powers by the treaties of Vienna and Paris. And,
evidently glad enough to keep clear of the affair, the Russian min-
ister said that his government would not object to the use by Spain
"of the good offices and even the mediation of any other power
which may have more active political relations than [has] Russia."
 How inactive Russia was, and how ineffectual her influence at
that time, can be seen in the facts that Andr6 de Daechkoff, Rus-
sian minister to the United States, had broken off diplomatic rela-
tions with the State Department in 1816, not to resume them
again until he presented his recall in March, 1819; and that his
successor, Pierre de Pol6tica, who carried the instructions men-