say's first overture.
Such a deputation would represent "more than 5,000 members and the
feeling of probably more than twenty millions of people." It should not
be a deputation "of parties" but representative of all groups in
Parliament:

"The Society has reason to believe that the Premier is
disposed to look favourably upon the attempt here
contemplated and that the weight of an influential deputation
would strengthen his hands[1182]."

This proposal from the Society was now lagging behind Lindsay's later
objective--namely, direct recognition. That this was felt to be
unfortunate is shown by a letter from Tremlett, Honorary Secretary of
the Society, to Mason. He wrote that the _Southern Independence
Association_, finally stirred by Lindsay's insistence, had agreed to
join the Society in a representation to Palmerston but had favoured some
specific statement on recognition. Palmerston had sent word that he
favoured the Society's resolution but not that of the Association, and
as a result the joint letter of the two organizations would be on the
mild lines of Lindsay's original motion:

"Although this quite expresses the object of our Society,
still I do not think the 'Independence Association' ought to
have 'ratted' from its principles. It ought not to have
consented to ignore the question which it was instituted to
bring before Parliament--that of the Independence of the
Confederacy--and more than that, the ambiguous ending of the
resolution to be submitted is not such as I think ought to be
allowed. You know the resolution and therefore I need only
quote the obnoxious words 'That Her Majesty's Government will
avail itself of the earliest opportunity of mediating, etc.'

"This is just leaving the Government where they have been all
along. They have always professed to take 'the earliest
opportunity' but of which they are to be the judges[1183]!"

Evidently there was confusion in the ranks and disagreement among the
leaders of Southern friends. Adams, always cool in judgment of where lay
the wind, wrote to Seward on this same day that Lindsay was delaying his
motion until the receipt of favourable news upon which to spring it.
Even such news, Adams believed, would not alter British policy unless it
should depict the "complete defeat and dispersion" of Northern
forces[1184]. The day following the _Times_ reported Grant to be meetin