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.
