led as one of its incidents a public dinner."
Seeing a visit to Newcastle announced, Lord Palmerston wrote (Sept. 24) to
Mr. Gladstone, begging him on no account to let the chancellor of the
exchequer be too sympathetic with the tax-payer, or to tell the country
that it was spending more money than it could afford. A more important
part of the letter was to inform Mr. Gladstone that he himself and Lord
Russell thought the time was fast approaching when an offer of mediation
ought to be made by England, France, and Russia, and that Russell was
going privately to instruct the ambassador at Paris to sound the French
government. "Of course," Lord Palmerston said, "no actual step would be
taken without the sanction of the cabinet. But if I am not mistaken, you
would be inclined to approve such a course." The proposal would be made to
both North and South. If both should accept, an armistice would follow,
and negotiations on the basis of separation. If both should decline, then
Lord Palmerston assumed that they would acknowledge the independence of
the South. The next day Mr. Gladstone replied. He was glad to learn what
the prime minister had told him, and for two reasons especially he desired
that the proceedings should be prompt. The first was the rapid progress of
the Southern arms and the extension of the area of Southern feeling. The
second was the risk of violent impatience in the cotton-towns of
Lancashire, such as would prejudice the dignity and disinterestedness of
the proffered mediation.(54) On September 17 Russell had replied to a
letter from Palmerston three days earlier, saying explicitly, "I agree
with you that the time is come for offering mediation to the United States
government, with a view to the recognition of the independence of the
Confederates. I agree further, that in case of failure, we ought ourselves
to recognise the Southern states as an independent state."(55) So far,
then, had the two heads of the government advanced, when Mr. Gladstone
went to Newcastle.

(M27) The people of the Tyne gave him the reception of a king. The prints
of the time tell how the bells rang, guns thundered, a great procession of
steamers followed him to the mouth of the river, ships flew their gayest
bunting, the banks were thronged with hosts of the black-handed toilers of
the forges, the furnaces, the coal-staiths, chemical works, glass
factories, shipyards, eager to catch a glimpse of the great man; and all
this not bec