he British and
French consuls, who had been themselves instructed by the ministers
of their respective governments at Washington." The presence of
a private intermediary at one point cannot break the chain of
official communication if the communications are themselves official.
For certain purposes the governments of England and France consulted
and determined upon a specific line of policy. That policy was
communicated in regular official instructions to their minister in
Washington. The Ministers were to select the instruments to carry
it out, and the persons selected were the official consular
representatives of France and England, who although residing at
the South held their _exequatures_ from the United-States Government.
They were instructed to make a political application to the government
of the Confederacy, and Lord John Russell could not disguise that
government under the mask of "the persons exercising authority in
the so-called Confederate States." Their application was received
by the Confederate Government through their agent just as it would
have been received through the mail addressed to the Secretary of
State. Their application was officially acted upon by the Confederate
Congress, and the result contained in an official document was
transmitted to them, and forwarded by them to their immediate
official superiors in Washington, who recognized it as a successful
result of "a difficult and delicate negotiation." It was then sent
to the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries, and the responsibility
of the act was fully and finally assumed by those ministers.

Nor can it be justified as an application to a belligerent, informing
him that in the exercise of belligerent rights England and France
would expect a strict conformity to International Law. The four
articles of the Treaty of Paris were not provisions of International
Law. They were explicit modifications of that law as it had long
existed, and the Declaration itself stated that it was not to bind
any of the Powers which had not agreed expressly to accept it. It
was therefore an invitation, not to a belligerent but to the Southern
Confederacy, to accept and thus become a part to an international
compact to which in the very nature of things there could be no
parties save those whose acceptance constituted an international
obligation. It has never yet been claimed that a mere insurgent
belligerent, however strong, occupied such position.