usly, for the moment, merely defending the
necessity of British neutrality[235]. But if regarded from the effect
upon British Ministers the incident was one of great, possibly even
vital, importance in the relations of the two countries. Lyons had been
gravely anxious to the point of alarm. Russell, less acutely alarmed,
was yet seriously disturbed. Both at Washington and in London the
suspicion of Seward lasted throughout the earlier years of the war, and
to British Ministers it seemed that at any moment he might recover
leadership and revert to a dangerous mood. British attitude toward
America was affected in two opposite ways; Britain was determined not to
be bullied, and Russell himself sometimes went to the point of arrogance
in answer to American complaints; this was an unfortunate result. But
more fortunate, and _also a result_, was the British Government's
determination to step warily in the American conflict and to give no
just cause, unless on due consideration of policy, for a rupture of
relations with the United States. Seward's folly in May of 1861, from
every angle but a short-lived "brain-storm," served America well in the
first years of her great crisis.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 197: See _ante_, p. 80.]

[Footnote 198: Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, II, p. 378. Seward to
Weed, December 27, 1861.]

[Footnote 199: _Ibid._, p. 355. Weed's letter was on the _Trent_ affair,
but he went out of his way to depict Seward as attempting a bit of
humour with Newcastle.]

[Footnote 200: Schleiden, a native of Schleswig, was educated at the
University of Berlin, and entered the Danish customs service. In the
German revolution of 1848 he was a delegate from Schleswig-Holstein to
the Frankfort Parliament. After the failure of that revolution he
withdrew to Bremen and in 1853 was sent by that Republic to the United
States as Minister. By 1860 he had become one of the best known and
socially popular of the Washington diplomatic corps, holding intimate
relations with leading Americans both North and South. His reports on
events preceding and during the Civil War were examined in the archives
of Bremen in 1910 by Dr. Ralph H. Lutz when preparing his doctor's
thesis, "Die Beziehungen zwischen Deutschland und den Vereinigten
Staaten waehrend des Sezessionskrieges" (Heidelberg, 1911). My facts with
regard to Schleiden are drawn in part from this thesis, in part from an
article by him, "Rudolph Schleiden and the Visit to