dre, the French Acting-Consul at Charleston[348].
Bunch received Lyons' official letter on July 19[349], together with a
private one of July 5, emphasizing that Bunch was to put nothing in
writing, and that he and his French colleagues were to keep the names of
Lyons and Mercier out of any talk, even, about the matter. Bunch was to
talk as if his instructions came directly from Russell. Lyons hoped the
South would be wise enough not to indulge in undue publicity, since if
"trumpeted" it might elicit "by such conduct some strong disavowal from
France and England." Both the official and the private letter must,
however, have impressed Bunch with the idea that this was after all a
negotiation and that he had been entrusted with it[350].

Bunch, whose early reports had been far from sympathetic with the
Southern cause, had gradually, and quite naturally from his environment,
become more friendly to it[351]. He now acted with promptness and with
some evident exultation at the importance given him personally. In
place of Governor Pickens an experienced diplomat, William Henry
Trescott, was approached by Bunch and Belligny, who, not St. Andre, was
then the French agent at Charleston[352]. Trescott went directly to
President Davis, who at once asked why the British proposal had not been
made through the Confederate Commissioners in London, and who somewhat
unwillingly yielded to Trescott's urging. On August 13 the Confederate
Congress resolved approval of the Declaration of Paris except for the
article on privateering[353]. Bunch took great pride in the secrecy
observed. "I do not see how any clue is given to the way in which the
Resolutions have been procured.... We made a positive stipulation that
France and England were not to be alluded to in the event of the
compliance of the Confederate Govt.[354]," he wrote Lyons on August 16.
But he failed to take account either of the penetrating power of
mouth-to-mouth gossip or of the efficacy of Seward's secret agents. On
this same day, August 16, Lyons reported the arrest in New York, on the
fourteenth, of one Robert Mure, just as he was about to take passage for
Liverpool carrying a sealed bag from the Charleston consulate to the
British Foreign Office, as well as some two hundred private letters. The
letters were examined and among them was one which related Bunch's
recent activities and stated that "Mr. B., on oath of secrecy,
communicated to me also that the first step of recogn