, for its success in suppressing the insurrection; and that on
the contrary the whole British nation, speaking practically, desire
and expect the dismemberment of the Republic."

This very decided step towards a hostile policy was soon followed
by another even more significant. On the 9th of May, 1861, only
a few days before the Proclamation of Her Britannic Majesty,
recognizing the belligerency of the Southern Confederacy and thus
developing itself as a part of a concerted and systematic policy,
Lord Cowley, the British Ambassador at Paris, wrote to Lord John
Russell: "I called this afternoon on M. Thouvenel, Minister of
Foreign Affairs, for the purpose of obtaining his answer to the
proposals contained in your Lordship's dispatch of the 6th inst.
relative to the measures which should be pursued by the Maritime
Powers of Europe for the protection of neutral property in presence
of the events which are passing in the American States. M. Thouvenel
said the Imperial Government concurred entirely in the views of
Her Majesty's Government in endeavoring to _obtain of the belligerents_
a _formal_ recognition of the second, third, and fourth articles
of the Declaration of Paris. Count de Flahault (French Ambassador
in London) would receive instructions to make this known officially
to your Lordship. With regard to the manner in which this endeavor
should be made, M. Thouvenel said that he thought a communication
should be addressed to both parties _in as nearly as possible the
same language_, the consuls being made the organs of communication
with the Southern States."

Communicating this intelligence to Lord Lyons in a dispatch dated
May 18, 1861, Lord John Russell added these instructions: "Your
Lordship may therefore be prepared to find your French colleague
ready to take the same line with yourself in his communications
with the Government of the United States. I need not tell your
Lordship that Her Majesty's Government would very gladly see a
practice which is calculated to lead to great irregularities and
to increase the calamities of war renounced by _both_ the contending
parties in America as it has been renounced by almost _every other
nation_ in the world. . . . You will take such measures as you
shall judge most expedient to transmit to Her Majesty's consul at
Charleston or New Orleans a copy of my previous dispatch to you of
this day's date, to be communicated at Montgomery to the President
of the so-styl