there might be. We now saw that she also had rights deemed "clear and unquestionable "which her people would support at all costs.
It proved somewhat difficult to enlighten British opinion as to what were theilower limits of the American demands. The Ashburton negotiations at first threw the matter in some doubt on account of Webster's suggestion about Northern California. Still, Lord Ashburton was finally convinced that, for one reason or another, Webster did not care at that time to consider the Columbia boundary proposed by him. When the popular clamour for Fifty-Four-Forty was taken up by the President himself, the British government should have been convinced that no possibility remained of securing Canning's boundary.
Peaceful policy of British statesmen; new negotiations; Pakenham and Calhoun. Doubtless these facts had their influence, especially upon the British cabinet leaders. But in matters of foreign policy public opinion is apt to change slowly and Canning's Oregon policy especially died hard. Sir Robert Peel and Lord Aberdeen, the British premier and the Foreign Secretary, were anxious to avoid a rupture with the United States and after Ashburton's failure they proposed a new negotiation, which they agreed might take place at Washington also. At the beginning of the year 1844 Richard Pakenham (afterwards Sir Richard) was sent to the United States as minister, with the special mission of settling the Oregon boundary question. Pakenham after some months, during
