David Erskine, 2nd Baron Erskine

Erskine was recalled in 1809 due to his resolution of the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair and remained out of favor until 1824 when he inherited his father's title.

[2] Erskine did not practise law; instead he was elected as Member of Parliament for Portsmouth in 1806,[3] in place of his father, who was appointed Lord Chancellor.

At the request of Erskine's father to Charles James Fox, then Foreign Secretary,[1] he was appointed Minister to the United States later that year.

[2] In 1809, Erskine was recalled by the Foreign Secretary, George Canning, for having offered the withdrawal of the Orders in Council of 1807 against the Americans and his resolution of the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair.

It was Canning who, in his most irresponsible manner and apparently out of sheer dislike of everything American, recalled the ambassador Erskine and wrecked the negotiations, a piece of most gratuitous folly.

Though the British cabinet eventually made the necessary concessions on the score of the Orders-in-Council, in response to the pressures of industrial lobbying at home, its action came too late… The loss of the North American markets could have been a decisive blow.

As it was by the time the United States declared war, the Continental System [of Napoleon] was beginning to crack, and the danger correspondingly diminishing.