write a public letter to President
Polk, wherein he urged him to prompt action in the Oregon boundary matter
so as to be ready for decisive measures in Texas.

[Sidenote: Slave trade under ban]

[Sidenote: General Zurbano shot]

The frustration of the British attempt to keep slavery out of Texas was
offset in other directions. A convention was concluded between Ecuador and
Great Britain to suppress slave trading in that region. In Cuba, likewise,
General Concha took measures for the total suppression of the slave trade.
A law was passed making the trade a criminal offence in the Spanish West
Indies. The government of Spain after much reluctance recognized the
independence of Venezuela. Affairs in Spain had taken a new turn. On
January 21, General Zurbano was betrayed into the hands of his enemies and
was shot. The Cortes adopted a reactionary constitution.

[Sidenote: Atrocities in Algiers]

In France, a Liberal majority in the Chambers, after a prolonged struggle,
brought about the expulsion of the Jesuits. In the midst of this movement,
Cavaignac, the great opposition journalist, expired. The French war in
Algeria by this time had degenerated into mere guerilla fighting. The chief
event of the year brought execration upon the arms of France. A tribe of
Kabyles had taken refuge in the caves of Dahra. Unable to dislodge them
from there, General Pelissier gave orders to smoke them out. Some five
hundred of the tribesmen, among them women, children and aged people, were
suffocated.

[Sidenote: Colonial expansion]

[Sidenote: Sikhs belligerent]

Colonial extension in other parts of the world was carried on in like
aggressive manner. Thus a joint expedition of France and Great Britain made
an attack on Tamatave in Madagascar, but failed of success. Another joint
expedition of the two powers forced the Republic of Argentine to concede
free navigation of the La Plata River. From China concessions were wrested
by which Christian missionaries were to be admitted to all of the five
treaty ports. As a consequence of these concessions a virulent hatred of
the foreigners sprang up among the common people of China. In South
Africa, Governor-General Maitland of Cape Colony earned the everlasting
hatred of the Boers by sending out an armed expedition to assist the black
warriors of Griqualand against the Boers. In India, affairs at Lahore had
reached a crisis. There the boy Maharajah, with his regent mother and her
favorite