Soon after the attack upon Sumter Mr. Mallory, Secretary of the Confederate Navy, sent Captain Bullock of Savannah to England, to engage ship-builders to fit out privateers. He found W. C. Miller & Son of Liverpool, and the Lairds of Birkenhead, ready to engage in the work of destroying American commerce. He contracted with the first for the building of the Oreto, or Florida, and with the Lairds for the "290," or Alabama. He also found warm welcome from Roebuck, Gregory, and other members of Parliament, and from capitalists, who subscribed liberally in aid of the enterprise.
Admiral Farragut.
Funds were needed for the payment of Rebel debts in England, and the Confederate Congress passed a bill in April, 1862, authorizing the exchange of bonds for articles in kind, and Mr. Benjamin thereupon wrote to Mr. Mason, advising him of the financial arrangements which had been made.
"At your suggestion," said Mr. Benjamin, "I have appointed Mr. James Spence of Liverpool financial agent, and have requested him to negotiate for the sale of five million dollars of our eight per cent bonds, if he can realize fifty per cent on them. I have already sent over two millions of bonds, and will send another million in a week or ten days. Mr. Spence is directed to confer with Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm & Co. who had previously been made our depositaries at Liverpool.... I have also directed Mr. Spence to endeavor to negotiate for the application of two and a half millions of coin, which I have here, for the purchase of supplies and munitions for our army. I hope that this coin will be accepted by British houses in payment at the rate of sterling in England, less freight and insurance. It seems to me that upon its transfer to British owners, they could obtain transportation for it on their vessels of war from any Confederate port, inasmuch as it would be bona fide British property, and in any event the holder of the transfer would have a certain security."[101]
This scheme of an alliance between British naval officers and the Rebel government was carried out, and a portion of the coin shipped in a British man-of-war, the Vesuvius, from Bahama, by the English consul.[102]
The bonds referred to by Mr. Benjamin were the regularly issued bonds of the Confederacy. Cotton certificates were also issued; but in addition to these means, the Rebel government deemed it advisable to bring out a loan based exclusively on cotton.
The proposition came from Mr. Slidell, who was in Paris, envoy to the Court of France, but who, instead of attending the receptions of the Emperor at the Tuileries, was endeavoring to obtain social and political recognition by giving luxurious entertainments. Napoleon was ready to recognize the Confederacy, but Palmerston and Russell hesitated, and he was not quite prepared to move alone in the matter.
He was anxious to see the great republic broken up, not that he particularly desired the establishment of the Confederacy, but for the furtherance of his own designs in Mexico. While professing to Mr. Slidell good-will, and a readiness to give substantial aid to the Rebellion, his agents, M. de Saligny, French minister in Mexico, M. Théron, French consul at Galveston, and M. Tabouelle, French vice-consul at Richmond, were intriguing to dismember Texas from the Confederacy.