While the Congress of the United States was busy in
discus- -sing divers Anti-British propositions about Oregon, foreign inter- Vention, and so forth, the announcement of Sir Robert Peel's new policy, in the Times, was received, with the contradiction of the Standard. The assertion obtained more credit than the contra- diction; and it evidently had a tendency pacifying in proportion to belief in its truth. The cardinal questions touching Ore- gon had been postponed for some weeks : thus time was gained, and the lapse of time is in itself an advantage ; since it is not any surrender of American rights that this country desires— scarcely even an abatement of any purely selfish grasping dis- position—but an abatement of that angry intoxication which would rush headlong to the infliction of mutual injury. If the rumour circulated by the Times proves sedative, how much more powerful the influence of Sir Robert Peel's speech, now on its way across the Atlantic!
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