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at the same time, entirely truthful, has frankly told me that he knows nothing of the matter, while the French minister, who is a very frank and friendly person, denies all knowledge of any such purpose. Further, Mr. Thouvenel's communications with us, made before and after the settlement of the Trent affair, are of such a character as to exclude a belief that France was, indeed, proposing to Great Britain a plot for the dismemberment of the Union. Moreover, I am slow to believe that either the government of France or the government of Great Britain misunderstand the true interests of their own country so much as to desire the dissolution of the Union, especially a dissolution to be effected by European intervention, and with the purpose of establishing a slaveholding power on the borders of the Caribbean sea.

We have unmistakable evidence that sympathizers with the secessionists will inaugurate a debate and motion for recognition in Parliament. Nor will I deny that I indulge some apprehension of the result. But, at the same time, I am not conscious of having left anything undone that could be done to enlighten the British government and the British public upon the merits of the question. The solution of it must be left to those who are expected to assume the responsibility. One thing is certain, so far as any future political event can be, and that is, that neither with nor without foreign aid will this Union be permitted by the American people to fall.

I cannot close this despatch without expressing especial acknowledgments for the care and candor with which you have sifted the thick rumors of mischief, and given me what was worthy of consideration.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

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SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of her Majesty's speech to both houses of Parliament, together with the Morning Post newspaper of this morning, giving a report of the debate in the two houses yesterday on the address. It will be perceived that both Lord Russell and Lord Palmerston announced, quite distinctly, the intention of the government to maintain its present position. The position of Lord Derby, on the other hand, is somewhat equivocal, and would seem to imply an organized movement, if it were not for the firmer tone of Mr. D'Israeli in the other house. On the whole, the expression of sentiment, so far as it goes, is favorable. The debate will, however, take quite a different shape when it comes to the questions presented in detail. There is no reason to doubt that a movement will then be made in whatever direction may be thought most likely, at the moment, to be favorable to the insurgents. The earnestness with which it will be pressed will largely depend on the nature of the intelligence received from the United States.

I beg, therefore, once more to urge the propriety of supplying this legation with as much authentic information as possible of the condition of the struggle, especially of the state of the blockade, the internal condition of the disaffected States, and the progress of the war. Speculation is at this

moment of little use. Our friends want their hands strengthened, both in the power of affirming our action and denying that assumed by the friends of the rebels. I do not like to be obliged to confess, when asked questions by persons who ought to know, touching the movements and policy of the government, that I am not able to answer them. I do not include in this category the inquiries most frequently addressed to me touching emancipation, although public opinion here is more sensitive to that chord than to any other. The rumor of propositions on that subject from the confederates is kept up as strenuously as the denial that the disposal of it enters at all into the issue raised by the United States. I know not how far the government may itself be possessed of accurate information respecting the domestic situation of the rebels, but the fact is certain that the total ignorance of it on this side is of the greatest possible advantage to their cause. For it enables their unscrupulous and desperate emissaries to palm off, without contradiction, any representation of it they chose to make."

I see by the newspapers that Mr. Yancey has embarked in a steamer to the West Indies, on his way home. He has labored indefatigably upon the newspaper press, and not without a good deal of success. It is said, though I know not with what truth, that large sums have been expended in this direction. The condition of the press is now so peculiar in this country that it is unusually open to such influences. I have not time to explain the reasons for this statement, for they run deeply into the moral and political condition of the people. At some future moment I may make it the subject of a particular communication.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

The speech of the Lords Commissioners to both houses of Parliament, on Thursday, February 6, 1862.

MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN:

We are commanded by her Majesty to assure you that her Majesty is persuaded that you will deeply participate in the affliction by which her Majesty has been overwhelmed by the calamitous, untimely, and irreparable loss of her beloved consort, who has been her comfort and support.

It has been, however, soothing to her Majesty, while suffering most acutely under this awful dispensation of Providence, to receive from all classes of her subjects the most cordial assurances of their sympathy with her sorrow, as well as of their appreciation of the noble character of him, the greatness of whose loss to her Majesty and to the nation is so justly and so universally felt and lamented.

We are commanded by her Majesty to assure you that she recurs with confidence to your assistance and advice.

Her Majesty's relations with all the European powers continue to be friendly and satisfactory; and her Majesty trusts there is no reason to apprehend any disturbance of the peace of Europe.

A question of great importance, and which might have led to very serious consequences, arose between her Majesty and the government of the United States of North America, owing to the seizure and forcible removal of four passengers from on board a British mail packet by the commander of a ship-of-war of the United States; but that question has been satisfactorily

settled by the restoration of the passengers to British protection, and by the disavowal by the United States government of the act of violence committed by their naval officer.

The friendly relations between her Majesty and the President of the United States therefore remained unimpaired.

Her Majesty warmly appreciates the loyalty and patriotic spirit which have been manifested on this occasion by her North American subjects.

The wrongs committed by various parties and by successive governments in Mexico upon foreigners resident within the Mexican territory, and for which no satisfactory redress could be obtained, have led to the conclusion of a convention between her Majesty, the Emperor of the French, and the Queen of Spain, for the purpose of regulating a combined operation on the coast of Mexico, with a view to obtain that redress which has hitherto been withheld.

That convention, and papers relating to that subject, will be laid before you.

The improvement which has taken place in the relations between her Majesty's government and that of the Emperor of China, and the good faith with which the Chinese government have continued to fulfil the engagements of the treaty of Tien-tsin, have enabled her Majesty to withdraw her troops from the city of Canton, and to reduce the amount of her force on the coast and in the seas of China.

Her Majesty, always anxious to exert her influence for the preservation of peace, has concluded a convention with the Sultan of Morocco, by means of which the Sultan has been enabled to raise the amount necessary for the fulfilment of certain treaty engagements which he had contracted towards Spain, and thus to avoid the risk of a renewal of hostilities with that power. That convention, and papers connected with it, will be laid before you. GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS:

she has directed the esThey have been framed

Her Majesty commands us to inform you that timates for the ensuing year to be laid before you. with a due regard to prudent economy and to the efficiency of the public service.

MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN:

Her Majesty commands us to inform you that measures for the improvement of the law will be laid before you, and among them will be a bill for rendering the title to land more simple, and its transfer more easy.

Other measures of public usefulness relating to Great Britain and to Ireland will be submitted for your consideration.

Her Majesty regrets that in some parts of the United Kingdom, and in certain branches of industry, temporary causes have produced considerable pressure and privation; but her Majesty has reason to believe that the general condition of the country is sound and satisfactory.

Her Majesty confidently recommends the general interests of the nation to your wisdom and your care; and she fervently prays that the blessing of Almighty God may attend your deliberations, and may guide them to the promotion of the welfare and happiness of her people.

No. 180.]

Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, February 10, 1862. SIR: It seems a mockery to give you accounts of military operations, insomuch as, though my advices are delayed until the last hour before the departure of the mail, they are outstripped by the telegraphic despatches going during two whole days from all parts of the country to the very hour of the sailing of the steamer.

Cloudless skies, with drying winter winds, have at last succeeded the storms which so long held our fleets in embargo and our land forces in their camps.

The Burnside expedition has escaped its perils, and is now in activity on the coast of North Carolina. The great victory at Mill Spring, in Kentucky, has been quickly followed by the capture of Fort Henry, on the Tennessee river, and the interruption of the railroad by which the insurgents have kept up their communications between Bowling Green and Columbus; and the divisions in the west are all in activity with prospects of decisive achievements.

It is now nearly one year since the insurgents began their desperate undertaking to establish a confederacy of the fifteen slave States. At some time within the previous six months they had virtually displaced the flag of the Union in thirteen of those States by stratagem or by force, and it stood in apparent jeopardy in the fourteenth State.

But the process of preparation has steadily gone on in the loyal States, while that of exhaustion has been going on in the disloyal. Only eleven of the slave States are practically subject to the insurgents, and already the flag of the Union stands, as we think, irremovably fixed upon some points in every one of the thirty-four States, except Texas, Alabama, and Arkansas. Congress has come fully up to the discharge of its great responsibility of establishing the finances of the country on a safe and satisfactory foundation. Notwithstanding the protestations of the insurgents that the people of the insurgent States are unanimous in their determination to overthrow the government, we have the most satisfactory evidence that the Union will be hailed in every quarter, just as fast as the army shall emancipate the people from the oppression of the insurgent leaders.

Under these circumstances, you will judge how strangely the assumptions of European papers and politicians that a preservation of the Union is impossible sound to us when they reach this side of the Atlantic.

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SIR: I transmit herewith a copy of the Morning Post, of the 11th instant, containing a report of the remarks made in the House of Lords on the subject of the blockade and of the treatment of British citizens in the United States.

Thus far the indications seem to be much more favorable to the maintenance of the existing relations between the countries than I had ventured to hope. This is partly to be ascribed to the course taken by the ministry, which I fully believe is taken in good faith, and somewhat to the current of intelligence from America for a week or two back, which renders the position of the insurgents much more dubious than it has been regarded heretofore. I have now only to confirm my previous assurances that a fair share of positive success in the field within the present and the next month will leave us free from the danger of any interference from this country, at least for some months to come.

At the same time that I say this, it seems to be my duty not to lose sight of the extreme uncertainty of the political direction of Great Britain at this moment. The ministers have lost so much ground in the elections held during the past season to supply vacancies, as well as by local disaffection in certain quarters, as to deprive them of a sure hold on the majority of Parliament. Their position, therefore, rests upon negatives, or, in other words, the absence of any declared system of policy, upon a part or all of which the opposition can tender a formal issue. On the other hand, Lord Derby and his friends do not yet feel strong enough to take the initiative in a policy of aggression upon which they would be ready to hazard an appeal to the people. This will account for the cautious manner in which they feel round the American question, in order to see if there be a weak place in the ministerial attitude. And so will be their probable action, until they find somewhere a place to make a stand. Should the opportunity be furnished, and the majority side with them, I have good reason to believe the struggle will not be permitted to end there. As this Parliament was originally elected under the strong conservative influences at the moment controlling the government, the attempt will undoubtedly be made to appeal from its decision by a dissolution and a new election. And not until after that event shall have taken place will it be at all possible to make even tolerably correct calculations of the future policy.

If this be in any degree an accurate description of the state of things, I trust that you will perceive at once the importance of keeping in view the possibility of accidentally, or otherwise, supplying a pretext for a division here adverse to the interests of the United States. There are persons enough here anxious to make a point on the foreign policy at a moment when the popular feeling will have become peculiarly sensitive by the distress occasioned by the failure of the cotton supply and the loss of our markets. In this sense it is, I think, that Mr. Cobden has strongly represented the difficulty of long persevering in the blockade. I think I see a good deal of timidity in approaching any question that may involve the necessity of upholding, even in appearance, the cause of a foreign country against the obvious and pressing necessities of this. We understand too well the nature of party tactics in America not to comprehend at once the precise nature of this difficulty. In this sense I am inclined to believe that the happening of the affair of the Trent just when it did, with just the issue that it had, was rather opportune than otherwise. But it has left us utterly unable to make any further concessions that are not clearly and universally perceived to be just.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

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