Then all at once, a crowd of people rushed into the room.

They were the wives, sisters, daughters, cousins, and lady friends of the President and of all his ministers, who were presented to us, and _vice versa_, in the midst of an inconceivable confusion." Fond, however, as Mr.Webster was of society, and punctilious as he was in matters of etiquette and propriety, M.de Bacourt to the contrary notwithstanding, he had far more important duties to perform than those of playing host and receiving foreign ministers.

Our relations with England when he entered the cabinet were such as to make war seem almost inevitable.

The northeastern boundary, undetermined by the treaty of 1783, had been the subject of continual and fruitless negotiation ever since that time, and was still unsettled and more complicated than ever.

It was agreed that there should be a new survey and a new arbitration, but no agreement could be reached as to who should arbitrate or what questions should be submitted to the arbitrators, and the temporary arrangements for the possession of the territory in dispute were unsatisfactory and precarious.
Much more exciting and perilous than this old difficulty was a new one and its consequences growing out of the Canadian rebellion in 1837.