"I'm the beggar," chuckled Captain Chever, and they drank each
other's health on the strength of it.

Although the Treaty of Ghent omitted mention of the impressment
of sailors, which had been the burning issue of the war, there
were no more offenses of this kind. American seafarers were safe
against kidnapping on their own decks, and they had won this
security by virtue of their own double-shotted guns. At the same
time England lifted the curse of the press-gang from her own
people, who refused longer to endure it.

There seemed no reason why the two nations, having finally fought
their differences to a finish, should not share the high seas in
peaceful rivalry; but the irritating problems of protection and
reciprocity survived to plague and hamper commerce. It was
difficult for England to overcome the habit of guarding her trade
against foreign invasion. Agreeing with the United States to
waive all discriminating duties between the ports of the two
countries--this was as much as she was at that time willing to
yield. She still insisted upon regulating the trade of her West
Indies and Canada. American East Indiamen were to be limited to
direct voyages and could not bring cargoes to Europe. Though this
discrimination angered Congress, to which it appeared as lopsided
reciprocity, the old duties were nevertheless repealed; and then,
presto! the British colonial policy of exclusion was enforced and
eighty thousand tons of American shipping became idle because the
West India market was closed.

There followed several years of unhappy wrangling, a revival of