THE ROARING FORTIES 105 



in both Great Britain and the United States. 

 At Washington in March the American Whigs 

 assumed control of the government; at London 

 in September the British Whigs fell from power. 

 Daniel Webster became American secretary of 

 state, and Lord Aberdeen became foreign sec 

 retary in place of Palmerston. The relations 

 of the English-speaking peoples with one an 

 other could scarcely have been more unpleasant 

 than they were at the time of these changes. 

 The McLeod incident, with the other friction 

 due to the Canadian insurrection, was at the 

 most critical stage, and the boundary dispute 

 was as far as ever from settlement. Added to 

 these came a fresh revival of the old and ex 

 tremely inflammatory issue about the right of 

 search. Slave-traders of various nationalities 

 were freely using the American flag to protect 

 themselves, and British cruisers on the African 

 coast, in trying to stop the trade, now and then 

 visited and examined a vessel whose right to 

 carry the American flag was beyond question. 

 The complaints of merchants whose business 

 was thus interfered with led to energetic pro 

 tests to the British Government, and one of the 

 last acts of Palmerston before his retirement 

 from the Foreign Office was to send in reply to 



