same day by the
President, and I have the honor to enclose herewith to your Lordship
the copy of them which has been sent to Mr. ---- by the Secretary
of State to be delivered to M. de Belligny and myself." On Aug.
30, 1861, Lord Lyons wrote to Lord John Russell: "I have received,
just in time to have the enclosed copy made for your Lordship, a
dispatch from Mr. Consul Bunch reporting the proceedings taken by
him in conjunction with his French colleague M. de Belligny to
obtain the adherence of the so-called Confederate States to the
last three articles of the Declaration of Paris;" and a few days
later he says, "I am confirmed in the opinion that the negotiation,
which was difficult and delicate, was managed with great tact and
judgment by the two consuls."

Upon the discovery of this "difficult and delicate negotiation,"
Mr. Seward demanded the removal of Mr. Bunch. Lord John Russell
replied to Mr. Adams Sept. 9, 1861, "The undersigned will without
hesitation state to Mr. Adams that in pursuance of an agreement
between the British and French Government, Mr. Bunch was instructed
to communicate to the persons exercising authority in the so-called
Confederate States the desire of those governments that the second,
third, and fourth articles of the Declaration of Paris should be
observed by those States in the prosecution of the hostilities in
which they were engaged. Mr. Adams will observe that the commerce
of Great Britain and France is deeply interested in the maintenance
of the articles providing that the flag covers the goods, and that
the goods of a neutral taken on board a belligerent ship are not
liable to confiscation. Mr. Bunch, therefore, in what he has done
in this matter, has acted in obedience to the instructions of his
government, who accept the responsibility of his proceedings so
far as they are known to the Foreign Department, and who cannot
remove him from his office for having obeyed instructions."

Here then was a complete official negotiation with the Confederate
States. Mr. Montagu Bernard, in his ingenious and learned work,
_The Neutrality of Great Britain during the American War_, conceals
the true character of the work in which the British Government had
been engaged: "The history of an unofficial application made to
the Confederate States on the same subject is told in the two
following dispatches. It will be seen that the channel of
communication was a private person instructed by t