venel wrote
to Flahault in London of the Emperor's displeasure, evidently with the
intention that this should be conveyed to Russell[608].

Naturally the persons most excited were the two Confederate agents in
Europe. At first they believed Mercier must have had secret orders from
Napoleon, and were delighted; then on denials made to Slidell by
Thouvenel they feared Mercier was acting in an unfavourable sense as
Seward's agent. Later they returned to the theory of Napoleon's private
manipulation, and being confident of his friendship were content to wait
events[609]. Slidell had just received assurance from M. Billault,
through whom most of his information came, "that the Emperor and all
the Ministers are favourable to our cause, have been so for the last
year, and are now quite as warmly so as they have ever been. M.
Thouvenel is of course excepted, but then he has no hostility[610]." But
a greater source of Southern hope at this juncture was another
"diplomatic adventure," though by no accredited diplomat, which
antedated Mercier's trip to Richmond and which still agitated not only
the Confederate agents, but the British Ministry as well.

This was the appearance of the British Member of Parliament, Lindsay, in
the role of self-constituted Southern emissary to Napoleon. Lindsay, as
one of the principal ship-owners in England, had long been an earnest
advocate of more free commercial intercourse between nations, supporting
in general the principles of Cobden and Bright, and being a warm
personal friend of the latter, though disagreeing with him on the
American Civil War. He had been in some sense a minor expert consulted
by both French and British Governments in the preparation of the
commercial treaty of 1860, so that when on April 9 he presented himself
to Cowley asking that an audience with the Emperor be procured for him
to talk over some needed alterations in the Navigation Laws, the request
seemed reasonable, and the interview was arranged for April 11. On the
twelfth Lindsay reported to Cowley that the burden of Napoleon's
conversation, much to his surprise, was on American affairs[611].

The Emperor, said Lindsay, expressed the conviction that re-union
between North and South was an impossibility, and declared that he was
ready to recognize the South "if Great Britain would set him the
example." More than once he had expressed these ideas to England, but
"they had not been attended to" and he should not try a