He realized that liberal England would be perpetually a minority in a united Europe, as Europe was then organized.

He believed that the best security for peace was not a union but a balance of powers.

He opposed intervention in the internal affairs of nations and stood for the right of each to choose its own form of government.

Particularly he fixed his eyes on America, where he hoped to find weight to help him balance the autocrats of the Old World.
He wished to see the new American republics free, and he believed that in freedom of trade England would obtain from them all that she needed.
Alarmed at the impending European intervention to restore the rule of Spain or of her monarchical assignees in America, he sought an understanding with the United States.

He proposed to Richard Rush, the United States minister in London, that the two countries declare concurrently that the independence of Spanish America, was a fact, that the recognition of the new governments was a matter of time and circumstance, that neither country desired any portion of Spain's former dominions, but that neither would look with indifference upon the transfer of any portion of them to another power.
On October 9, 1823, this proposal reached Washington.