is of an American complaint shortly to be considered, the
paragraph referring to this matter is important:

"The solicitude felt by Lord John Russell as to the effect of
certain measures represented as likely to be adopted by the
President induced him to request me to call at his private
residence yesterday. I did so. He told me that the three
representatives of the Southern confederacy were here[139];
that he had not seen them, but was not unwilling to do so,
_unofficially_; that there existed an understanding between
this government and that of France which would lead both to
take the same course as to recognition, whatever that course
might be; and he then referred to the rumour of a meditated
blockade of Southern ports and their discontinuance as ports
of entry--topics on which I had heard nothing. But as I
informed him that Mr. Adams had apprised me of his intention
to be on his way hither, in the steamship 'Niagara,' which
left Boston on the 1st May, and that he would probably arrive
in less than two weeks, by the 12th or 15th instant, his
lordship acquiesced in the expediency of disregarding mere
rumour, and waiting the full knowledge to be brought by my
successor. The motion, therefore, of Mr. Gregory may be
further postponed, at his lordship's suggestion."

May 3rd, Russell held an unofficial interview with the two Southern
commissioners in fact arrived, Yancey and Rost. As reported by
them[140], Russell listened with attention to their representation, but
made no informing comment. They argued the constitutional right of
secession, depicted the firm determination of the South, were confident
of early acquiescence by the North, and especially laid stress on the
Southern desire for free trade. Russell's own report to Lyons on this
interview and on one held six days later, May 9, is in substantial
agreement, but much more is made by him than by the Commissioners of a
question put by Russell as to a Southern plan of reviving the African
slave-trade[141]. Yancey and Rost denied this and asserted "that they
had prohibited the slave-trade, and did not mean to revive it." Their
report to Richmond does not depict this matter as of special
significance in the interview; Russell's report to Lyons lays stress
upon it. The general result of the interview was that Russell listened,
but refused, as to Dallas, to make any ple