[146] It is to be remembered that the United States had given no notice of the existence of a state of war.
[147] In diplomatic usage official notification of neutrality to a belligerent has varied, but Russell's letters show him to have appreciated a peculiar delicacy here.
[148] F.O., France, Vol. 1376, No. 553. Draft. Printed in Parliamentary Papers, 1862, Lords, Vol. XXV. "Correspondence on International Maritime Law." No. 1.
[149] It is interesting that on this same day Lyons was writing from Washington advocating, regretfully, because of his sympathy with the North, a strict British neutrality:
"The sympathies of an Englishman are naturally inclined
towards the North--but I am afraid we should find that
anything like a quasi alliance with the men in office here
would place us in a position which would soon become
untenable. There would be no end to the exactions which they
would make upon us, there would be no end to the disregard of
our neutral rights, which they would show if they once felt
sure of us. If I had the least hope of their being able to
reconstruct the Union, or even of their being able to reduce
the South to the condition of a tolerably contented or at all
events obedient dependency, my feeling against Slavery might
lead me to desire to co-operate with them. But I conceive all
chance of this to be gone for ever."
Russell Papers. Lyons to Russell, May 6, 1861.
"The sympathies of an Englishman are naturally inclined
towards the North--but I am afraid we should find that
anything like a quasi alliance with the men in office here
would place us in a position which would soon become
untenable. There would be no end to the exactions which they
would make upon us, there would be no end to the disregard of
our neutral rights, which they would show if they once felt
sure of us. If I had the least hope of their being able to
reconstruct the Union, or even of their being able to reduce
the South to the condition of a tolerably contented or at all
events obedient dependency, my feeling against Slavery might
lead me to desire to co-operate with them. But I conceive all
chance of this to be gone for ever."
[150] F.O., France, Vol. 1390. No. 677.
[151] Ibid., No. 684. Printed in part in Parliamentary Papers, 1862, Lords, Vol. XXV. "Correspondence on International Maritime Law." No. 3.
[152] Times, May 9, 1861.
[153] Parliamentary Papers, 1862, Lords, Vol. XXV. "Correspondence on Civil War in the United States." No. 31.
[154] So stated by the Times, May 9, 1861.