of war" of Sept. 5, from the point of view
of his own anxiety at the time, was naturally inclined to magnify the
effects of his own efforts and to regard the _crisis_ as occurring in
September. His notes to Russell and his diary records were early the
main basis of historical treatment. Rhodes, IV, 381-84, has disproved
the accusation of Russell's yielding to a threat. Brooks Adams (Mass.
Hist. Soc. _Proceedings_, Vol. XLV, p. 293, _seq._) ignores Rhodes,
harks back to the old argument and amplifies it with much new and
interesting citation, but not to conviction. My interpretation is that
the real crisis of Governmental decision to act came in April, and that
events in September were but final applications of that decision.]

[Footnote 1031: Russell Papers. Monck to Stuart, Sept. 26, 1863. Copy in
Stuart to Russell, Oct. 6, 1863.]

[Footnote 1032: _Ibid._, Lyons to Russell, Oct. 16, 1863.]

[Footnote 1033: Hammond wrote to Lyons, Oct. 17: "You will learn by the
papers that we have at last seized the Iron Clads. Whether we shall be
able to bring home to them legally that they were Confederate property
is another matter. I think we can, but at all events no moral doubt can
be entertained of the fact, and, therefore, we are under no anxiety
whether as to the public or Parliamentary view of our proceeding. They
would have played the devil with the American ships, for they are most
formidable ships. I suppose the Yankees will sleep more comfortably in
consequence." (Lyons Papers.) The Foreign Office thought that it had
thwarted plans to seize violently the vessels and get them to sea.
(F.O., Am., Vol. 930. Inglefield to Grey, Oct. 25, and Romaine to
Hammond, Oct. 26, 1863.).]

[Footnote 1034: F.O., Am., Vol. 929. Marked "September, 1863." The draft
summarized the activities of Confederate ship-building and threatened
Southern agents in England with "the penalities of the law...."]

[Footnote 1035: F.O., Am., Vol. 932, No. 1. F.O. to Consul-General
Crawford, Dec. 16, 1863. The South, on October 7, 1863, had already
"expelled" the British consuls. Crawford was to protest against this
also. (_Ibid._, No. 4.)]

[Footnote 1036: Bonham. _British Consuls in the South_, p. 254.
(Columbia Univ. Studies, Vol. 43.)]

[Footnote 1037: Lyons Papers. Russell to Lyons, Dec. 5, 1863. Bullock,
_Secret Service_, declares the British Government to have been neutral
but with strong leaning toward the North.]

[Footnote 1038: Hansard,