Aug. 26. Stuart's "nothing to be done" refers,
not to mediation, but to his idea in June-July that the time was ripe
for recognition. He was wholly at variance with Lyons on
British policy.]

[Footnote 731: Gladstone Papers. Aug. 26, 1862.]

[Footnote 732: _Ibid._, Aug. 29, 1862.]

[Footnote 733: Palmerston MS. Aug. 6, 1862.]

CHAPTER XI

RUSSELL'S MEDIATION PLAN

The adjournment of Parliament on August 7 without hint of governmental
inclination to act in the American Civil War was accepted by most of the
British public as evidence that the Ministry had no intentions in that
direction. But keen observers were not so confident. Motley, at Vienna,
was keeping close touch with the situation in England through private
correspondence. In March, 1862, he thought that "France and England have
made their minds up to await the issue of the present campaign"--meaning
McClellan's advance on Richmond[734]. With the failure of that campaign
he wrote: "Thus far the English Government have resisted his
[Napoleon's] importunities. But their resistance will not last
long[735]." Meanwhile the recently established pro-Southern weekly, _The
Index_, from its first issue, steadily insisted on the wisdom and
necessity of British action to end the war[736]. France was declared
rapidly to be winning the goodwill of the South at the expense of
England; the British aristocracy were appealed to on grounds of close
sympathy with a "Southern Aristocracy"; mediation, at first objected to,
in view of the more reasonable demand for recognition, was in the end
the chief object of _The Index_, after mid-July, when simple recognition
seemed impossible of attainment[737]. Especially British humiliation
because of the timidity of her statesmen, was harped upon and any public
manifestation of Southern sympathy was printed in great detail[738].

The speculations of Motley, the persistent agitation of _The Index_ are,
however, no indication that either Northern fears or Southern hopes were
based on authoritative information as to governmental purpose. The plan
now in the minds of Palmerston and Russell and their steps in furthering
it have been the subject of much historical study and writing. It is
here proposed to review them in the light of all available important
materials, both old and new, using a chronological order and with more
citation than is customary, in the belief that such citations best tell
the story of this, the most critical per