and a sensitiveness to whatever may touch the honour of the country, a sensitiveness which this Government will ever feel and ever cultivate,—make this a matter of high importance; and I must be allowed to ask for it your Lordship's grave consideration. "I have, &c.,

Now, although the British minister had been unwilling to offer the "atonement and apology' alluded to in the foregoing letter of Mr. Webster, it appears that within twenty-four hours he made to him the following submission :

-:

Nearly five years are now past since this occurrence; there has been time for the public to deliberate upon it calmly and I believe I may take it to be the opinion of candid and honourable men, that the British officers who executed this transaction, and their Government who approved it, intended no slight or disrespect to the sovereign authority of the United States. That they intended no such disrespect, I can most solemnly affirm; and I trust it will be admitted that no inference to the contrary can fairly be drawn, even by the most susceptible on points of national honour."

One would have thought that "the most susceptible nation on points of national honour" ought to have been satisfied with this declaration in the name of the Queen of Great Britain, that, in the capture of the Caroline, no slight or disrespect to the sovereign authority of the United States was intended; but the British Government, as if foreseeing that, without the use of the word " apology," this troublesome business could not quickly be "settled”—and

that any mention of the murder of the Queen's soldiers of the invasion of the Queen's territoryand of the plunder of the Queen's subjects, might seriously embarrass the negotiation, added," What is perhaps most to be regretted is, that some explanation and APOLOGY for this occurrence was not immediately made."

The capitulation was complete-the humiliation was deemed sufficient; and accordingly Mr. Webster was authorised to address to the British Minister as a receipt in full of all demands, a despatch, of which the following are extracts, and which, considering the fearful odds between the respective complaints of England and the United States against each other, is certainly the greatest triumph of an unjust demand, which, in the annals of diplomacy, has ever been recorded.

“MY LORD,

(COPY.).

"Department of State,

66

Washington, August 6, 1842.

"YOUR Lordship's note of the 28th of July, in answer to mine of the 27th of July, respecting the case of the 'Caroline,' has been received, and laid before the President.

"The President sees with great pleasure that your Lordship fully admits that great principle of public law applicable to cases of this kind which this Government has expressed.

Seeing that the transaction is not recent, having happened in the time of one of his predecessors; seeing that

your Lordship, in the name of your Government, solemnly declares that no slight or disrespect was intended to the sovereign authority of the United States; seeing that it is acknowledged that, whether justifiable or not, there was yet a violation of the territory of the United States, and that you are instructed to say that your Government consider that as a most serious occurrence; seeing, finally, that it is now admitted that an explanation and apology for this violation was due at the time; the President is content to receive these acknowledgments and assurances in the conciliatory spirit which marks your Lordship's letter, and will make this subject, as a complaint of violation of territory, the topic of no further discussion between the two Governments.

As history will not, I hope, blame me for the apology that has been offered for my defence of the Queen's territory, I can truly say that the mortification which for a moment this apology created in my mind has completely subsided. But the constitutional party in our North American Colonies, who took arms to maintain Conservative principles, deeply feel that the noble cause in which they came forward has been tarnished by an uncalled-for submission; they feel that, while neither their lives nor their properties have been duly noticed, the demands of democracy have been too readily conceded. The best-educated men in our North American Colonies are indignant at the former having, as they say, been sacrificed in an unworthy attempt to appease

the latter. They complain that, like the soldiers of Whitelock, they have been irresolutely commanded -that they have been misgoverned by a timid course of policy, upon which it is impossible for them in future to rely; in short, they are in a state of despair, caused by a firm conviction that, in the apology made by England for the destruction of the Caroline, their interests and their honour have been alike sacrificed.

There are, I know, among our most worthy statesmen many who believed that the dishonour of this apology, though great, would be amply repaid by its pacific results. Great, however, must have been their disappointment when they perceived that democracy, instead of being satiated, was excited by our weakness; and that when we grasped at the reward of our policy, we reaped nothing but the mortification and disappointment of hearing those who at such a costly sacrifice of principle we had endeavoured to conciliate, openly and ungratefully exclaim," AND NOW, HURRAH FOR OREGON!"

THE

CHAPTER XII.

THE HUNTED HARE.

-never

IT is over; and so it does not now matter ;theless it is a historical fact to which some minds may attach curious importance, that although by statute-law hare-hunting ends in England on the 27th of February, it was not until the 23rd of March that the anxieties I had so long been suffering suddenly ceased.

On that day, at noon precisely, I had proceeded to Parliament Buildings to attend the swearing-in of my successor; and as soon as this important ceremony was over, bowing in silence, first to him and then to his Executive Council-who had so long been my own faithful advisers, and whom I now left seated on each side of him in the Council Chamber-I descended the stairs, and then opening a private door, I found myself at once and alone in the pure fresh air.

It was a most heavenly day; and although the ground before me was still sparkling with snow, and although the harbour behind me was still covered with ice as thick as in the depth of winter, the sun was quite hot, the air highly exhilarating, and the Canada sky I fancied bluer and more magnificent