224 ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS. [CHAP. XXXIL 



where he can be landed ; but I never happened to see 

 so strong a measure resorted to. 



The newspapers on the cabin table of the Andrew 

 Jackson had a column headed in capitals, &quot; Five 

 Weeks later from Europe.&quot; The mail packet had 

 been detained by adverse winds longer than usual, 

 and the uneasiness respecting the chances of a war 

 with England, still the subject of debate in Congress, 

 had risen to a great height. Many lovers of peace 

 had misgivings lest the English democracy, growing 

 at last impatient, should express themselves with 

 violence, and excite the war party here. The first 

 glance at the news relieved them from anxiety, 

 for the English were entirely absorbed with Free 

 Trade, Cheap Bread, and the admission of foreign 

 grain without duty. The Cabinet were too well 

 satisfied that the people s attention was drawn 

 off from foreign affairs to obtrude the American 

 question unnecessarily on their attention. One of 

 the politicians on board, who had been reading an 

 account of the proceedings of the Anti-Corn-Law 

 League, and the parliamentary debates on the Corn 

 Duties, confessed to me, that the omission of all 

 allusion to America the English being so entirely 

 occupied with their domestic affairs wounded his 

 feelings. &quot; Here we have been talking,&quot; he said, 

 &quot; for three months about nothing else but Oregon, 

 imagining that the whole world was looking on, 

 in suspense, at this momentous debate, and even in 

 Great Britain it has been forgotten for five entire 

 weeks ! What an absurd figure we are cutting ! &quot; 



