y."

Within three months the blockade and its effectiveness was to be made
the subject of the first serious parliamentary discussion on the Civil
War in America. In another three months the Government began to feel a
pressure from its associate in "joint attitude," France, to examine
again with much care its asserted policy of strict neutrality, and this
because of the increased effectiveness of the blockade. Meanwhile
another "American question" was serving to cool somewhat British
eagerness to go hand in hand with France. For nearly forty years since
independence from Spain the Mexican Republic had offered a thorny
problem to European nations since it was difficult, in the face of the
American Monroe Doctrine, to put sufficient pressure upon her for the
satisfaction of the just claims of foreign creditors. In 1860 measures
were being prepared by France, Great Britain and Spain to act jointly in
the matter of Mexican debts. Commenting on these measures, President
Buchanan in his annual message to Congress of December 3, 1860, had
sounded a note of warning to Europe indicating that American principles
would compel the use of force in aid of Mexico if debt-collecting
efforts were made the excuse for a plan "to deprive our neighbouring
Republic of portions of her territory." But this was at the moment of
the break-up of the Union and attracted little attention in the United
States. For the same reason, no longer fearing an American block to
these plans, the three European Governments, after their invitation to
the United States to join them had been refused, signed a convention,
October 31, 1861, to force a payment of debts by Mexico. They pledged
themselves, however, to seek no accession of territory and not to
interfere in the internal affairs of Mexico.

In this pledge Great Britain and Spain were sincere. Napoleon III was
not--was indeed pursuing a policy not at first understood even by his
Ministers[546]. A joint expedition under the leadership of the Spanish
General Prim was despatched, and once in Mexico took possession of
customs houses and began to collect duties. It soon became evident to
the British and Spanish agents on the spot that France had far other
objects than the mere satisfaction of debts. The result was a clash of
interests, followed by separate agreements with Mexico and the
withdrawal of forces by Great Britain and Spain. This difference of view
on Mexican policy had become clear to Cowley, Britis