Page:The War with Mexico, Vol 2.djvu/322

304 were other considerations also. She wanted time to readjust her business under the régime of free trade, and Le National thought she desired to develop her India cotton fields before severing her relations with us. The political situation in Ireland and the Irish famine were grave embarrassments, and the generous aid given by the United States to the starving population of that island excited gratitude. British mercantile finances proved to be unsound, and a bad panic occurred; and manufacturing interests awoke to the fact that many rivals threatened them. The profound unrest which precipitated Europe into the revolutionary convulsions of — 1848 could already be felt; and finally the relations of England to France occasioned a grave sense of uncertainty.

With the support of that power, said Murphy, Aberdeen would have been willing to fight. Her military assistance did not particularly matter, but he was afraid that popular unfriendliness toward the government — already shown by a violent opposition in the press and the parliament — and the scarcely slumbering hatred of England might drive the country into active support of the United States, and bring on a general conflagration. Such was the situation when Peel, whom Louis Philippe leaned heavily upon, stood at the head of the British government; and after he resigned at the end of June, 1846, it became far more difficult. For the new administration Louis entertained no such regard. The marriage of the Duc de Montpensier, his son, to a Spanish princess destroyed the entente cordiale. Harsh language was exchanged. Guizot and Palmerston endeavored to overthrow each other, and the British ambassador at Paris had a personal difficulty with Guizot.

As for France herself, the premier's loud advocacy of an American balance of power compelled him logically to prevent the United States, if he could, from acquiring new territory. Influential writers — Gabriel Ferry, for example — insisted that French interests, principles and prestige in Mexico demanded protection. L'Epoque, which many regarded as Guizot's personal organ, took that ground firmly in a long and studied article, and called for joint intervention. Le Journal des Débats, our persistent enemy, suggested the same view. But the diplomatic journal, La Portefeuille, was resolute for