lusion,
through further study, that he had earlier been in error and developed a
very different view in a monograph entitled, "Seward and the Declaration
of Paris."

[Illustration: C.F. ADAMS (_From a photograph in the United States
Embassy, London, by kind permission_)]

If these historiographic details seem unduly minute, partaking as they
do of the nature of a foot-note, in a work otherwise general in
treatment, the author's answer is that the personality of two of the
writers mentioned and their intimate knowledge of the effect of the
negotiation upon the mind of the American Minister in London are
themselves important historical data; a further answer is the fact
that the materials now available from the British Foreign Office
archives throw much new light both on the course of the negotiation and
on British purposes. It is here planned, therefore, first to review the
main facts as previously known; second, to summarize the arguments and
conclusions of the three historians; third, to re-examine the
negotiation in the light of the new material; and, finally, to express
an opinion on its conduct and conclusions as an evidence of
British policy.

In 1854, during the Crimean War, Great Britain and France, the chief
maritime belligerents engaged against Russia, voluntarily agreed to
respect neutral commerce under either the neutral's or the enemy's flag.
This was a distinct step forward in the practice of maritime warfare,
the accepted international rules of which had not been formally altered
since the Napoleonic period. The action of Great Britain was due in
part, according to a later statement in Parliament by Palmerston, March
18, 1862, to a fear that unless a greater respect were paid than
formerly to neutral rights, the Allies would quickly win the ill-will of
the United States, then the most powerful maritime neutral, and would
run the danger of forcing that country into belligerent alliance with
Russia[239]. No doubt there were other reasons, also, for the barbarous
rules and practices of maritime warfare in earlier times were by now
regarded as semi-civilized by the writers of all nations. Certainly the
action of the belligerents in 1854 met with general approval and in the
result was written into international law at the Congress of Paris in
1856, where, at the conclusion of the war, the belligerents and some
leading neutrals were gathered.

The Declaration of Paris on maritime warfare covered four points