ced in
the Commons that Great Britain must be strictly neutral, and that a
policy of close harmony with France was being matured; and on this day
he proposed through Cowley, in Paris, that Great Britain and France each
ask _both_ the contending parties in America to abide by the second and
third articles of the Declaration of Paris[273]. If there was ulterior
motive here it does not appear in any despatch either then or later,
passing between any of the British diplomats concerned--Russell, Cowley,
and Lyons. The plain fact was that the United States was not an adherent
to the Declaration, that the South had announced privateering, and the
North a blockade, and that the only portions of the Declaration in
regard to which the belligerents had as yet made no statement were the
second and third articles.

It was, indeed, an anxious time for the British Government. On May 9
Forster asked in the Commons what would be the Government's attitude
toward a British subject serving on a Southern privateer[274]. The next
day in the Lords there occurred a debate the general burden of which was
that privateering was in fact piracy, but that under the conditions of
the American previous stand, it could not be treated as such[275]. Both
in the Commons and the Lords speakers were referred to the forthcoming
Proclamation of Neutrality, but the uncertainty developed in both
debates is very probably reflected in the new despatch now sent to
Cowley, on May 11[276]. By that despatch France was asked to send an
instruction to Mercier in Washington similar to a draft instruction
intended for Lyons, a copy of which was enclosed to Cowley, the object
being to secure from the American belligerents adherence to _all_ the
articles, privateering included, of the Declaration of Paris[277].

Whatever Russell's purpose in thus altering his original suggestion, it
met with a prompt check from France. On May 9 Thouvenel had agreed
heartily to the proposal of May 6, adding the practical advice that the
best method of approach to the Confederacy would be through the consuls
in the South[278]. Now, on May 13, Russell was informed that Thouvenel
feared that England and France would get into serious trouble if the
North agreed to accede on privateering and the South did not. Cowley
reported that he had argued with Thouvenel that privateers were pirates
and ought to be treated as such, but that Thouvenel refused to do more
than instruct Mercier on the second a