s of the two nations on "right of search," and finally took
the ground that Mason and Slidell were contraband of war and justly
subject to capture, but that Wilkes had erred in not bringing the
_Trent_, with her passengers, into port for trial by an American prize
court. Therefore the two envoys with their secretaries would be handed
over promptly to such persons as Lyons might designate. It was, says
Seward's biographer, not a great state paper, was defective in argument,
and contained many contradictions[476], but, he adds, that it was
intended primarily for the American public and to meet the situation at
home. Another critic sums up Seward's difficulties: he had to persuade a
President and a reluctant Cabinet, to support the naval idol of the day,
to reconcile a Congress which had passed resolutions highly commending
Wilkes, and to pacify a public earlier worked up to fever pitch[477].
Still more important than ill-founded assertions about the nature of
contraband of war, a term not reconcilable with the _neutral port_
destination of the _Trent_, was the likening of Mason and Slidell to
"ambassadors of independent states." For eight months Seward had
protested to Europe "that the Confederates were not belligerents, but
insurgents," and now "his whole argument rested on the fact that they
were belligerents[478].... But this did not later alter a return to his
old position nor prevent renewed arguments to induce a recall by
European states of their proclamations of neutrality.

On the afternoon of January 8, a telegram from Lyons was received in
London, stating that the envoys would be released and the next day came
his despatch enclosing a copy of Seward's answer. The envoys themselves
did not reach England until January 30, and the delay in their voyage
gave time for an almost complete disappearance of public interest in
them[479]. January 10, Russell instructed Lyons that Great Britain was
well satisfied with the fact and manner of the American answer, and
regarded the incident as closed, but that it could not agree with
portions of Seward's argument and would answer these later. This was
done on January 23, but the reply was mainly a mere formality and is of
interest only as revealing a further shift in the opinion of the legal
advisers, with emphasis on the question of what constitutes
contraband[480]. Possibly the British Government was embarrassed by the
fact that while France had strongly supported England at W