Ii6 THE ROARING FORTIES 



of surviving high Toryism the sufferings of the 

 Africans were notoriously of little concern in 

 comparison with the maintenance intact of 

 British rule on the seas as against the aspira 

 tions of the upstart republic of the West. On 

 the other hand, there was a feeling among the 

 liberals in England that the obstinate refusal 

 of the Americans to join with whole soul in the 

 operations against the slavers was dictated less 

 by fears and scruples about the right of search 

 than by unavowed indifference to the existence 

 of the traffic. And this again was not without 

 foundation; for the trend of events during the 

 past ten years in relation to slavery had markedly 

 strengthened a feeling in the South that war 

 on the slave-trade was too closely associated 

 with abolitionism to be wholly free from peril 

 to the institutions of the section. 



In the negotiations of 1842 Webster secured 

 an opportunity to put his government s views 

 correctly on the record, by asking that the right 

 of search in connection with impressment, rather 

 than with the slave-trade, be taken up for dis 

 cussion. Ashburton declared that his instruc 

 tions did not permit him to enter upon that 

 subject. Webster made use of the occasion to 

 enlarge with eloquence and force upon the views 



