uvernement anglais s'il ne croit
pas le moment venu de reconnaitre le Sud[699]." Palmerston had already
answered this question in Parliament and Thouvenel was personally very
much opposed to the Emperor's suggestion. There were press rumours that
he was in London to bring the matter to a head, but his report to
Mercier was that interference in America was a very dangerous matter and
that he would have been "badly received" by Palmerston and Russell if he
had suggested any change in neutral policy[700].

In spite of this decided opposition by the French Minister of Foreign
Affairs it is evident that one ground for renewed Southern hopes was the
knowledge of the Emperor's private desires. Lindsay chose his time well
for on July 16 the first thorough report on Lancashire was laid before
Parliament[701], revealing an extremity of distress not previously
officially authenticated, and during this week the papers were full of
an impending disaster to McClellan's army. Lyons, now in London, on his
vacation trip, was concerned for the future mainly because of cotton,
but did not believe there was much danger of an immediate clash with
America[702]. But the great Southern argument of the moment was the
Northern military failure, the ability of the South to resist
indefinitely and the hopelessness of the war. On the morning of July 18
all London was in excitement over press statements that the latest news
from America was not of McClellan's retreat but of the capture of his
entire army.

Lindsay's motion was set for debate on this same July 18. Adams thought
the story of McClellan's surrender had been set afloat "to carry the
House of Commons off their feet in its debate to-night[703]." The
debate itself may be regarded as a serious attempt to push the Ministry
into a position more favourable to the South, and the arguments advanced
surveyed the entire ground of the causes of secession and the
inevitability of the final separation of North and South. They need but
brief summary. Lindsay, refusing to accede to appeals for postponement
because "the South was winning anyway," argued that slavery was no
element in the conflict, that the Southern cause was just, and that
England, because of her own difficulties, should mediate and bring to a
conclusion a hopeless war. He claimed the time was opportune since
mediation would be welcomed by a great majority in the North, and he
quoted from a letter by a labouring man in Lancashire, stati