land. All
seemed to be going well until the line of beaters contracted, when it was
found that the natives were in the rear, instead of in the front. The
attempt proved a total failure; only two natives were captured. The total
cost of the expedition amounted to L35,000. The individual measures of the
settlers against the despised natives proved more efficacious. Within a few
years, when the last of the Tasmanian aborigines were transferred from the
mainland to Flinder's Island, by the instrumentality of George Augustus
Robinson, it was found that but three hundred were left. The white
population--largely of convict antecedents--by this time numbered more than
15,000 persons.

[Sidenote: North American dissensions]

[Sidenote: Nullification debate]

[Sidenote: Webster's declaration]

In North America the doctrine of nullification, newly put forth, emphasized
the growing differences between the Northern and Southern States. The great
debate between Hayne and Webster came about casually in the course of a
discussion of the sale of public lands. The topic of nullification was
dragged in by Southern speakers. Webster felt called upon to uphold the
cause of the Northern States. Smarting under some of his animadversions of
Southern sloth, Hayne made a two-day speech in which he inveighed against
the spirit of the New Englanders. His own State, South Carolina, and her
sister States in the South, he declared, would defend their sovereign
rights, or "perish in the last ditch." Webster's reply to those prophetic
words was the grandest oratorical effort of his life. He declared for the
continued union of all the States in all their strength: "Liberty and
Union, now and forever, one and inseparable." Jackson's progressive foreign
policy poured oil on the troubled waters. His repeal of the shipping acts
of 1818 and 1823 brought about a resumption of direct trade with the West
Indies. On October 5, Jackson was able to issue a proclamation announcing
the opening of permanent trade with all ports of the West Indies, Bermudas,
Bahamas, the Gulf of Mexico and South America.

[Sidenote: Anglo-American treaty]

[Sidenote: O'Connell's State trial]

[Sidenote: Anti-reform utterances]

[Sidenote: Wellington unpopular]

[Sidenote: Fall of Ministry]

[Sidenote: Earl Grey, Prime Minister]

This friendly treaty with America was the last satisfactory measure passed
by Wellington's Ministry in England. As elsewhere in Europe the succes