“I further told his Lordship that recognition was a right which no one would deny us the form of exercising, that the fear of war if we exercised it was a delusion.  That the majority of the leading men in the Northern States would thank us for exercising it, and that even Seward himself might be glad to see it exercised so as to give him an excuse for getting out of the terrible war into which he had dragged his people.  I further said, that if the question is settled without our recognition of the South, he might rest certain that the Northern Armies would be marched into Canada.  I hope my note may produce the desired results, and thus get the Government to take the matter in hand, for sub rosa, I saw that the House was not yet prepared to vote, and the question is far too grave to waste time upon it in idle talk, even if talk, without action, did no harm.”

]

[Footnote 649:  Ibid., Slidell to Mason, June 17, 1862.]

[Footnote 650:  Ibid., Mason to Slidell, June 19, 1862.]

[Footnote 651:  Ibid.]

[Footnote 652:  Hansard, 3rd.  Ser., CLXVII, p. 810.]

[Footnote 653:  Mason Papers.  Slidell to Mason, June 21, 1862.]

CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO

CHAPTER PAGE X. KING COTTON . . . . . . . . . . 1 XI.  RUSSELL’S MEDIATION PLAN . . . . . . 33 XII.  THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION . . . . 75 XIII.  THE LAIRD RAMS . . . . . . . . . 116 XIV.  ROEBUCK’S MOTION . . . . . . . . 152 XV.  THE SOUTHERN INDEPENDENCE ASSOCIATION . 186 XVI.  BRITISH CONFIDENCE IN THE SOUTH . . . 219 XVII.  THE END OF THE WAR . . . . . . . . 247 XVIII.  THE KEY-NOTE OF BRITISH ATTITUDE . . . 274 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PART TWO

PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH . . . . . . . . Frontispiece From a photograph by Elliott & Fry, Ltd.

JOHN SLIDELL . . . . . . . . . . . facing p. 24 From Nicolay and Hay’s “Life of Abraham Lincoln,” by permission of the Century Co., New York.

“ABE LINCOLN’S LAST CARD” . . . . . . . " 102 Reproduced by permission of the Proprietors of “Punch”

WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER (1851) . . . . . . " 134 From Reid’s “Life of Forster” (Chapman & Hall, Ltd.)

“THE AMERICAN GLADIATORS—­HABET!” . . . . " 248 Reproduced by permission of the Proprietors of “Punch”

“BRITANNIA SYMPATHIZES WITH COLUMBIA” . . . " 262 Reproduced by permission of the Proprietors of “Punch”