Browsing: Papers of John Adams, Volume 8

2. On 3 Dec. 1779 Sir James Harris, the British ambassador to Russia, had presented a proposal for an Anglo-Russian alliance. It soon shared the fate of two other such proposals made since his arrival at St. Petersburg in late 1777. By 14 Dec., Catherine II determined, as she had before, that Russia's position vis-à-vis other European powers made such a compact inadvisable (De Madariaga, Armed Neutrality of 1780 , p. 121–138).