172 THROUGH THREEFOLD TENSION 



no abandonment of the claim to the indefeasible 

 allegiance of the subjects of the crown or of the 

 right to force those subjects into the service of 

 the navy. All that resulted from the new atti 

 tude of the British Government was the addi 

 tion of that government s powerful support to 

 the movement toward the freedom of the seas. 

 So soon as the visitation of a vessel bearing the 

 American flag ceased to be claimed as a right 

 by Great Britain, the last great obstacle was 

 removed that barred the most efficient co-opera 

 tion for the suppression of the slave-trade. 

 Within a few years the United States came to 

 an agreement with Great Britain authorizing the 

 cruisers of either nation to search a suspected 

 slaver bearing the colors of the other. This 

 arrangement had been diligently sought by the 

 British Government for years, but the United 

 States had held off so long as that was claimed 

 as a right which they were willing to concede 

 only as a conventional impairment of a right. 



While the Central American situation and 

 the other matters noticed above were dragging 

 their troubled way to a settlement and engag 

 ing the chief interest of the two greater peoples 

 of the English-speaking trio, the third member 

 of the group passed through a scries of inter- 



