By the middle of October the two nations were fairly deadlocked.

Sir Edward Grey's reply to the American proposal had been an acceptance of the Declaration of London with certain modifications.

For the list of contraband in the Declaration he had submitted the list already adopted by Great Britain in its Order in Council, and he had also rejected that article which made it impossible for Great Britain to apply the doctrine of "continuous voyage" to conditional contraband.

The modified acceptance, declared Mr.Lansing, was a practical rejection--as of course it was, and as it was intended to be.

So the situation remained for several exciting weeks, the State Department insisting on the Declaration in full, precisely as the legal luminaries had published it five years before, the Foreign Office courteously but inflexibly refusing to accede.