18. The long interval of peace after the outrages last mentioned caused a lull in British pretensions,--to be awakened by the blast of war. In 1837, Canada was disturbed by a rebellion, soon followed by the invasion of our territorial jurisdiction at Niagara. I refer to the case of the steamboat Caroline, which, while moored to the American shore, was entered in the darkness of night by a British expedition from Canada, set on fire, and pushed into the rapids to be precipitated over the cataract. Some persons on board were killed and others wounded. For this unquestionable violation of our territory there was no offer of reparation,--“no acknowledgment, no explanation, no apology,” as Mr. Webster expressed it,--until, nearly five years afterwards, Lord Ashburton, on his special mission, expressed regret “that some explanation and apology was not immediately made.” The amiable language of the British minister was promptly accepted by Mr. Webster, who was at the time Secretary of State, and the controversy subsided. The steamboat had been destroyed; but there was no offer to restore its value, nor was this question raised by our Government.[26] 19. The latest instance, in point of time, worth while to name in this list, is that of the Brazilian ship Santa Cruz, which, in 1850, was seized and burned, with all her lading and papers, by a British cruiser in the Brazilian waters. The excuse for the seizure was that the ship was engaged in the slave-trade, and for the burning that she was unseaworthy; but both these assertions were denied point-blank by the Brazilian Government, which branded the transaction as “Vandalism,” and gave notice that it would demand indemnity for the loss of the ship. As the ship was destroyed, there was no question of restitution. But there was formal protest against what was called “a violation of every principle of the Law of Nations by acts highly derogatory to the dignity, the sovereignty, and the independence of Brazil,--a nation as sovereign and independent as Great Britain, although it may not have the power to prevent such proceedings.”[27]