=472. The Trent Affair.=—Toward the close of the year 1861, an event occurred which nearly involved the Union in a war with Great Britain. In November, Captain Wilkes, a United States officer, in command of the _San Jacinto_, boarded a British mail steamer, _The Trent_, and took from her James M. Mason of Virginia and John Slidell of Louisiana, who were bound for Europe as Confederate commissioners. The right to stop and search the vessels of neutrals in time of war had long been maintained by Great Britain. The “Right of Search,” as we have seen, had been one of the causes of the War of 1812. Though often protested against, it had been generally maintained, but at the close of the Crimean War the Great Powers of Europe agreed, at the Peace of Paris, in 1856, to abandon it. To this agreement the United States, not being a member of the Congress, had not been a party, and was, therefore, not bound by it. The British government, however, insisted that the European agreement should be binding upon the United States, and immediately demanded the surrender of Mason and Slidell. Troops and vessels of war were at once sent over to Canada, and great excitement was the result. The officials of the United States replied that, although not a party to the agreement of 1856, their government had always been opposed to the “Right of Search,” and in accordance with its own principles would give up the prisoners. =473. Feeling engendered by the Trent Affair.=—The incident left an angry feeling in the North toward Great Britain, for it was universally felt that the British government had shown an unmistakable partiality for the South. This feeling was further aggravated by the habitual attitude of that important newspaper, the London _Times_. Its offensive editorial utterances, which were generally thought to be inspired by Lord Palmerston, the Prime Minister, were the source of a vast amount of ill feeling for more than a generation.