The other affairs which occupied Mr. Webster’s official attention at this time made less noise than that with Austria, but they were more complicated and some of them far more perilous to the peace of the country.  The most important was that growing out of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty in regard to the neutrality of the contemplated canal in Nicaragua.  This led to a prolonged correspondence about the protectorate of Great Britain in Nicaragua, and to a withdrawal of her claim to exact port-charges.  It is interesting to observe the influence which Mr. Webster at once obtained with Sir Henry Bulwer and the respect in which he was held by that experienced diplomatist.  Besides this discussion with England, there was a sharp dispute with Mexico about the right of way over the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and the troubles on the Texan boundary before Congress had acted upon the subject.  Then came the Lopez invasion of Cuba, supported by bodies of volunteers enlisted in the United States, which, by its failure and its results, involved our government in a number of difficult questions.  The most serious was the riot at New Orleans, where the Spanish consulate was sacked by a mob.  To render due reparation for this outrage without wounding the national pride by apparent humiliation was no easy task.  Mr. Webster settled everything, however, with a judgment, tact, and dignity which prevented war with Spain and yet excited no resentment at home.  At a later period, when the Kossuth affair was drawing to an end, the perennial difficulty about the fisheries revived and was added to our Central American troubles with Great Britain, and this, together with the affair of the Lobos Islands, occupied Mr. Webster’s attention, and drew forth some able and important dispatches during the summer of 1852, in the last months of his life.

While the struggle was in progress to convince the country of the value and justice of the compromise measures and to compel their acceptance, another presidential election drew on.  It was the signal for the last desperate attempt to obtain the Whig nomination for Mr. Webster, and it seemed at first sight as if the party must finally take up the New England leader.  Mr. Clay was wholly out of the race, and his last hour was near.  There was absolutely no one who, in fame, ability, public services, and experience could be compared for one moment with Mr. Webster.  The opportunity was obvious enough; it awakened all Mr. Webster’s hopes, and excited the ardor of his friends.  A formal and organized movement, such as had never before been made, was set on foot to promote his candidacy, and a vigorous and earnest address to the people was issued by his friends in Massachusetts.  The result demonstrated, if demonstration were needed, that Mr. Webster had not, even under the most favorable circumstances, the remotest chance for the presidency.  His friends saw this plainly enough before the convention met, but he himself regarded