o documents revealing such a purpose. While
it may seem a reasonable speculation it does not appear to be borne out
by the new British materials cited later in this chapter.]

[Footnote 266: C.F. Adams, "Seward and The Declaration of Paris" _Mass.
Hist. Soc. Proceedings_, XLVI, pp. 23-81.]

[Footnote 267: _Ibid._, p. 57. The quotation is from a despatch by Lyons
of Dec. 6, 1861; but this is inexact language. It is true that Seward
had refused to receive officially this despatch, but he had read and
considered it in private. Hence he knew _privately_ the facts of
Russell's proposal and that Lyons had no instructions to negotiate. The
incident of this despatch has been treated by me in Chapter IV, where I
regard Seward's refusal to receive officially the despatch as primarily
a refusal to be notified of Great Britain's proclamation of neutrality.
Bancroft treats this incident as primarily a clever refusal by Seward to
be approached officially by Lyons and Mercier in a joint representation,
thus blocking a plan of joint action. (Bancroft, _Seward_, II, p. 181.)
I agree with C.F. Adams that the only effect of this, so far as the
negotiation is concerned was that "Seward, by what has always, for some
reason not at once apparent, passed for a very astute proceeding, caused
a transfer of the whole negotiation from Washington to London and
Paris." ("Seward and the Declaration of Paris," p. 50.)]

[Footnote 268: _Ibid._, p. 51.]

[Footnote 269: _Ibid._, p. 64.]

[Footnote 270: _Ibid._, p. 60.]

[Footnote 271: _Ibid._, p. 58.]

[Footnote 272: Bancroft says June 8. But see _ante_, p. 130.]

[Footnote 273: _Parliamentary Papers, 1862, Lords_, Vol. XXV.
"Correspondence respecting International Maritime Law." No. 1. It was
with reference to this that Palmerston, on May 5, wrote to Russell: "If
any step were thought advisable, perhaps the best mode of our feeling
our way would be to communicate confidentially with the South by the men
who have come over here from thence, and with the North by Dallas, who
is about to return in a few days. Dallas, it is true, is not a political
friend of Lincoln, but on the contrary rather leans to the South; but
still he might be an organ, if it should be deemed prudent to take any
step." (Palmerston MS.)]

[Footnote 274: Hansard, 3rd. Ser., Vol. CLXII, p. 1763.]

[Footnote 275: _Ibid._, pp. 1830-34.]

[Footnote 276: This instruction never got into the printed Parliamentary
papers, nor did