THROUGH THREEFOLD TENSION 163 



Greytown by an American war-ship, as a pun 

 ishment for violence by the townsmen to the 

 American minister to Nicaragua. 



James Buchanan went as minister to London 

 in 1853 with the special mission of bringing the 

 serious situation to a settlement. Under the 

 pacific ministry of Lord Aberdeen it was not 

 hard to reach the general outline of an adjust 

 ment. Great Britain was ready to relinquish 

 the Mosquito protectorate and the Bay Island 

 colony as soon as it could be done with grace 

 and dignity. The peculiar politics of Nicara 

 gua, with the extraordinary exploits of Walker s 

 filibusters, interposed serious obstacles to this 

 happy outcome, and the Crimean War raised up 

 untimely diversion of the British Government s 

 attention. Palmerston s accession to power in 

 1855 brought a noticeable stiffening up of the 

 British attitude. In consequence Buchanan re 

 turned to America in the following year with 

 out his mission attained. As President of the 

 United States, however, he was able to an 

 nounce in his annual message of 1860 a final 

 settlement of the subject in a manner entirely 

 satisfactory to the United States. 



The settlement in which Buchanan found rea 

 son for solid comfort was embodied in treaties 



