REFORM AND DEMOCRACY 55 



two governments. They had become serious 

 rivals for the controlling interest in American 

 affairs. 



During the last two years of Canning s life, 

 1825-27, the diplomatic situation in general was 

 very unpleasant. What he had tried most dil 

 igently to prevent, when he summoned the New 

 World to solve the problems of the Old, seemed 

 near to realization, namely, the confronting of 

 monarchic Europe by a solidly republican Amer 

 ica. The establishment of monarchy in Brazil 

 he had regarded with much satisfaction, and 

 Iturbide s imperial enterprise in Mexico seemed 

 to him likely to provide a useful counterpoise 

 to the influence of the United States. The 

 melancholy failure of Iturbide confirmed the 

 disappointment that Monroe s message created. 

 It only remained to oppose at every point the 

 ambition of the United States, and to be un 

 ceasingly watchful against the development of 

 her claims. In a familiar letter to Bagot, now 

 ambassador at Saint Petersburg, of July 29, 

 1824, Canning urged haste in concluding with 

 Russia a convention assuring to Great Britain 

 the right of navigation in Behring Sea and 

 Straits. &quot; There is very nice bobbing for 

 whale they tell me, ipsis Behringi in faucibus, 



