LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE

54

accepting the compromise contained in the President's proposition, it would not surprise me if an arrangement upon that

and important classes complained of principally by the

basis should prove acceptable to large in this

country; indeed

it

is

Hudson's Bay Company and those in its interest. That the Ministry would find it difficult and hazardous to prefer war to such a settlement

assume

it

may

well be imagined; although you

to be certain that

when war becomes

may

inevitable,

it

undivided support of the British people." He added further that it was the current belief in England that will receive the

the Annual

Message would present again the opinion the President had expressed in his Inaugural, with, perhaps a recommendation that the joint occupancy be terminated. This,

he thought would not necessarily embarrass the relations between the countries. Aberdeen's instructions to Pakenham contained the course outlined to

McLane;

arbitration, he be-

lieved, would be the most prudent step and best calculated to allay the "effervescence of popular feeling," therefore Paken-

ham

should propose

it

at the first opportunity. 47

Such was the situation when Congress convened in December, from which time the diplomatic and legislative currents meet and run along together, sometimes intermingling, sometimes clearly differentiated, and it is to the legislative side to which attention must now be turned. 47 Aberdeen to Pakenham, 28 Nov., Br.

&

F. St. Papers, 34:130-1.