at if the judgment was clear, and if the
Government persisted in proceeding further, that our
Association (which he was pleased to learn had been formed)
would take up the matter in Parliament and out of it, for if
we had no right to seize these ships, it was most unjust that
we should detain them by raising legal quibbles for the
purpose of keeping them here till the time arrived when the
South might not require them. I think public opinion will go
with us on this point, for John Bull--with all his
failings--loves fair play[1149]."

It is apparent from the language used by Lindsay that he was
thinking of the Laird Rams and other ships fully as much as of the
_Alexandra_[1150], and hoped much from an attack on the Government's
policy in detaining Southern vessels. Earl Russell was to be made to
bear the brunt of this attack on the reassembling of Parliament. In an
_Index_ editorial, Adams was pictured as having driven Russell into a
corner by "threats which would not have been endured for an hour by a
Pitt or a Canning"; the Foreign Secretary as invariably yielding to the
"acknowledged mastery of the Yankee Minister":

"Mr. Adams' pretensions are extravagant, his logic is
blundering, his threats laughable; but he has hit his mark.
We can trace his influence in the detention of the
_Alexandra_ and the protracted judicial proceedings which
have arisen out of it; in the sudden raid upon the rams at
Birkenhead; in the announced intention of the Government to
alter the Foreign Enlistment Act of this country in
accordance with the views of the United States Cabinet. When
one knows the calibre of Mr. Adams one feels inclined to
marvel at his success. The astonishment ceases when one
reflects that the British Secretary for Foreign Affairs is
Earl Russell[1151]."

But when, on February 23, the debate on the Laird Rams occurred[1152],
the Tory leaders, upon whom Lindsay and others depended to drive home
the meaning of the _Alexandra_ decision, carefully avoided urging the
Government to change its policy and contented themselves with an
effort, very much in line with that initiated by _The Index_, to
belittle Russell as yielding to a threat. Adams was even applauded by
the Tories for his discretion and his anxiety to keep the two countries
out of war. The Southern Independence Association remained quiescent.
Very evidently