t any others will be used for that purpose[543]." This was no
yielding to Great Britain, nor even an answer to Russell's accusation of
barbarity. The fact was that the plan of obstruction of harbours,
extending even to placing a complete barrier, had been undertaken by the
Navy with little expectation of success, and, on the first appearance of
new channels made by the wash of waters, was soon abandoned[544].

The British outcry, Russell's assumption in protest that America was
conducting war with barbarity, and the protest itself, may seem at first
glance to have been merely manifestations of a British tendency to
meddle, as a "superior nation" in the affairs of other states and to
give unasked-for advice. A hectoring of peoples whose civilization was
presumably less advanced than that which stamped the Englishman was,
according to Matthew Arnold, traditional--was a characteristic of
British public and Government alike[545]. But this is scarcely a
satisfactory explanation in the present case. For in the first place it
is to be remarked that the sinking of obstructions in an enemy's
harbours in order to render more effective a blockade was no novelty in
maritime warfare, as Russell must have well known, and that there was no
modern record of such obstructions having permanently destroyed a
harbour. A far more reasonable explanation is that which connects the
energy of the British Government in opposing a proposed American closing
of Southern harbours by Presidential proclamation, with a like energy
against the stone boat project. The first method was indeed rightly
regarded as a violation of accustomed maritime belligerency, but both
methods were primarily objectionable in British eyes because they were
very evidently the result of efforts to find a way in which an as yet
ineffective blockade could be made more rigorous. On the impossibility
of an effective blockade, if conducted on customary lines, the British
people and Foreign Secretary had pinned their faith that there would be
no serious interruption of trade. This was still the view in January,
1862, though doubts were arising, and the "stone boat" protest must be
regarded as another evidence of watchful guardianship of commerce with
the South. The very thought that the blockade might become effective, in
which case all precedent would demand respect for it, possibly caused
Russell to use a tone not customary with him in upbraiding the North for
a planned "barbarit