The character of the national representatives on both sides in London tended, moreover, to aggravate the growing irritation between the two countries.

Lord Palmerston was sharp and domineering, and Mr.Stevenson, our minister, was by no means mild or conciliatory.

Between them they did what they could to render accommodation impossible.
To evolve a satisfactory and permanent peace from these conditions was the task which confronted Mr.Webster, and he was hardly in office before he received a demand from Mr.Fox for the release of McLeod, in which full avowal was made that the burning of the Caroline was a public act.

Mr.
Webster determined that the proper method of settling the boundary question, when that subject should be reached, was to agree upon a conventional and arbitrary line, and that in the mean time the only way to dispose of McLeod was to get him out of prison, separate him, diplomatically speaking, from the affair of the Caroline, and then take that up as a distinct matter for negotiation with the British government.
The difficulty in regard to McLeod was the most pressing, and so to that he gave his immediate attention.

His first step was to instruct the Attorney-General to proceed to Lockport, where McLeod was imprisoned, and communicate with the counsel for the defence, furnishing them with authentic information that the destruction of the Caroline was a public act, and that therefore McLeod could not be held responsible.