oused itself to punish some of the minor misdoers and made many
explanations and apologies, but the aggrieved nations insisted, and
obtained as compensation a greater security for foreigners and the
removal of many of the restraints upon commerce and travel. Thus the
riot proved a substantial step in Philippine progress.

Following closely the excitement over the massacre of the foreigners
in Manila came the news that Spain had sold Florida to the United
States. The circumstances of the sale were hardly creditable to the
vendor, for it was under compulsion. Her lax government had permitted
its territory to become the refuge of criminals and lawless savages
who terrorized the border until in self-defense American soldiers under
General Jackson had to do the work that Spain could not do. Then with
order restored and the country held by American troops, an offer to
purchase was made to Spain who found the liberal purchase money a
very welcome addition to her bankrupt treasury.

Immediately after this the Monroe Doctrine attracted widespread
attention in the Philippines. Its story is part of Spanish history. A
group of reactionary sovereigns of Europe, including King Ferdinand,
had united to crush out progressive ideas in their kingdoms and
to remove the dangerous examples of liberal states from their
neighborhoods. One of the effects of this unholy alliance was to
nullify all the reforms which Spain had introduced to secure English
assistance in her time of need, and the people of England were greatly
incensed. Great Britain had borne the brunt of the war against Napoleon
because her liberties were jeopardized, but naturally her people could
not be expected to undertake further warfare merely for the sake of
people of another land, however they might sympathize with them.

George Canning, the English statesman to whom belonged much of the
credit for the Constitution of Cadiz, thought out a way to punish
the Spanish king for his perfidy. King Ferdinand was planning, with
the Island of Cuba as a base, to begin a campaign that should return
his rebellious American colonies to their allegiance, for they had
taken advantage of disturbances in the Peninsula to declare their
independence. England proposed to the United States that they, the two
Anglo-Saxon nations whose ideas of liberty had unsettled Europe and
whom the alliance would have attacked had it dared, should unite in
a protectorate over the New World. England was to