THE ROARING FORTIES 119 



action caused intense exasperation in the United 

 States, especially in the South. The feeling 

 was not softened by the fact that Northern 

 abolitionists rapturously applauded the free 

 ing of the slaves. The case was indeed only 

 the culmination of a series in which, since the 

 emancipation of the blacks in the West Indies, 

 the Bahama officials had rigorously applied the 

 principle of English law that a slave on enter 

 ing the jurisdiction of Great Britain became 

 ipso facto free. Webster felt obliged to inject 

 this matter also into the correspondence with 

 Lord Ashburton, contending that under the 

 law of nations jurisdiction over a foreign ship 

 brought into a port against its will did not 

 extend to the divesting of property rights on 

 board, and that on the general principles of 

 international comity rigorous procedure under 

 such circumstances as those that brought the 

 Creole into port was barbarous, and destructive 

 to all hope of amicable relations. Here again 

 Ashburton disclaimed authority to go at large 

 into the question, but engaged that the govern 

 ors of the British colonies near the slave States 

 should be cautioned against &quot;officious interfer 

 ence with American vessels driven by accident 

 or by violence into those ports.&quot; 



