Her people and her government alike were troubled at the repressive measured by which the Allies put down the Revolution of Naples in 1821 and that of Spain in 1823.

Still more were they disturbed at the hint given at the Congress of Verona in 1822 that, when Europe was once quieted, America would engage the attention of Europe's arbiters.

George Canning, the English foreign minister, soon discovered that this hint foreshadowed a new congress to be devoted especially to the American problem.

Spain was to be restored to her sovereignty, but was to pay in liberal grants of American territory to whatever powers helped her.

Canning is regarded as the ablest English foreign minister of the nineteenth century; at least no one better embodied the fundamental aspirations of the English people.