's offer. Congress, however, took
the matter more grimly, for throughout the dealings with Napoleon, it
had been at odds with Lincoln. It now passed the first of a series of
resolutions which expressed the will of the country, if not quite
the will of the President, by resolving that any further proposal of
mediation would be regarded by it as "an unfriendly act."

Napoleon then resumed his scheming for joint intervention, while in
the meantime his armies continued to fight their way until they entered
Mexico City in June, 1863. The time had now come when Napoleon thought
it opportune to show his hand. Those were the days when Lee appeared
invincible, and when Chancellorsville crowned a splendid series of
triumphs. In England, the Southern party made a fresh start; and
societies were organized to aid the Confederacy. At Liverpool,
Laird Brothers were building, ostensibly for France, really for the
Confederacy, two ironclads supposed to outclass every ship in the
Northern navy. In France, 100,000 unemployed cotton hands were rioting
for food. To raise funds for the Confederacy the great Erlanger
banking-house of Paris negotiated a loan based on cotton which was to
be delivered after the breaking of the blockade. Napoleon dreamed of a
shattered American union, two enfeebled republics, and a broad way for
his own scheme in Mexico.

In June an English politician of Southern sympathies, Edward Roebuck,
went over to France, was received by the Emperor, and came to an
understanding with him. Roebuck went home to report to the Southern
party that Napoleon was ready to intervene, and that all he waited for
was England's cooperation. A motion "to enter into negotiations with the
Great Powers of Europe for the purpose of obtaining their cooperation
in the recognition" of the Confederacy was introduced by Roebuck in the
House of Commons.

The debate which followed was the last chance of the Southern party
and, as events proved, the last chance of Napoleon. How completely the
British ministry was now committed to the North appears in the fact that
Gladstone, for the Government, opposed Roebuck's motion. John Bright
attacked it in what Lord Morley calls "perhaps the most powerful and the
noblest speech of his life." The Southern party was hardly resolute in
their support of Roebuck and presently he withdrew his motion.

But there were still the ironclads at Liverpool. We have seen that
earlier in the war, the carelessness of the