62.]

[Footnote 557: Bernard, p. 245. The author agrees with Russell but adds
that Great Britain, in the early stages of the blockade, was indulgent
to the North, and rightly so considering the difficulties of
instituting it.]

[Footnote 558: He wrote to Mason on February 10, 1863, that he saw "no
reason to qualify the language employed in my despatch to Lord Lyons of
the 15th of February last." (Bernard, p. 293).]

[Footnote 559: Richardson, _Messages and Papers of the Confederacy_, II,
p. 155. Yancey and Mann to Hunter, Jan. 27, 1862.]

[Footnote 560: Mason, _Mason_, pp. 257-8, Jan. 30, 1862.]

[Footnote 561: Mason Papers. Feb. 5, 1862.]

[Footnote 562: Mann sent this "confidential memorandum" to Jefferson
Davis, Feb. 1, 1862 (Richardson, II, 160). There is no indication of how
he obtained it. It was a fake pure and simple. To his astonishment
Slidell soon learned from Thouvenel that France knew nothing of such a
memorandum. It was probably sold to Mann by some enterprising "Southern
friend" in need of money.]

[Footnote 563: Mason, _Mason_, p. 258. Mason to Hunter, Feb. 7, 1862.]

[Footnote 564: _Ibid._, pp. 260-62. Mason's despatch No. 4. Feb. 22,
1862. (This despatch is not given by Richardson.) Slidell was more
warmly received by Thouvenel. He followed the same line of argument and
apparently made a favourable impression. Cowley reported Thouvenel,
after the interview, as expressing himself as "hoping that in two or
three months matters would have reached such a crisis in America that
both parties would be willing to accept a Mediation...."

(F.O., France., Vol. 1432. No. 132. Confidential. Cowley to Russell,
Feb. 10, 1862.)]

[Footnote 565: Mason Papers. Spence to Mason, Feb. 13, 1862. This was
that James Spence, author of _The American Union_, a work strongly
espousing the Southern cause. This book was not only widely read in
England but portions of it were translated into other languages for use
on the Continent. Spence was a manufacturer and trader and also operated
in the Liverpool Cotton Exchange. He made a strong impression on Mason,
was early active in planning and administering Southern cotton loans in
England, and was in constant touch with Mason. By Slidell he was much
less favourably regarded and the impression created by his frequent
letters to Mason is that of a man of second-rate calibre elated by the
prominent part he seemed to be playing in what he took to be the birth
of a new State.]