d bring about an amicable separation into two countries, and so,
apparently, did the Foreign Secretary, Lord John Russell. Recently, the
American minister had vainly protested against the sailing of a ship
known as 290 which was being equipped at Liverpool presumably for the
service of the Confederacy, and which became the famous Alabama. For two
years it roved the ocean destroying Northern commerce, and not until
it was sunk at last in a battle with the U. S. S. Kearsarge did all the
maritime interests of the North breathe again freely. In time and as a
result of arbitration, England paid for the ships sunk by the Alabama.
But in 1862, the protests of the American minister fell on deaf ears.

It must be added that the sailing of the Alabama from Liverpool was
due probably to the carelessness of British officials rather than to
deliberate purpose. And yet the fact is clear that about the first of
October, 1862, the British ministry was on the verge of intervening to
secure recognition of the independence of the Southern confederacy. The
chief motive pressing them forward was the distress in England caused by
the lack of cotton which resulted from the American blockade. In 1860,
the South had exported 615,000 bales; in 1861, only 10,127 bales. In
1862 half the spindles of Manchester were idle; the workmen were out of
employment; the owners were without dividends. It was chiefly by these
manufacturing capitalists that pressure was put upon the ministry,
and it was in the manufacturing district that Gladstone, thinking the
Government was likely to intervene, made his allusion to the South as a
nation.

Meanwhile the Emperor of the French was considering a proposal to
England and Russia to join with him in mediation between the American
belligerents. On October 28, 1862, Napoleon III gave audience to the
Confederate envoy at Paris, discussed the Southern cause in the most
friendly manner, questioned him upon the Maryland campaign, plainly
indicated his purpose to attempt intervention, and at parting cordially
shook hands with him. Within a few days the Emperor made good his
implied promise.

The month of November, 1862, is one of the turning-points in American
foreign relations. Both Russia and England rejected France's proposal.
The motive usually assigned to the Emperor Alexander is his hatred of
everything associated with slavery. His own most famous action was the
liberation of the Russian serfs. The motives of the Br