tempt her by expatiating on the profits to be reaped by Chap.XVII. opening the blockade. They had hoped to gain her by means of her material interests; and, when she proved unyielding, they inveighed against her as selfish, calculating, and inhuman.' They affirmed that her neutrality was not sincere, but warped in favour of the North. They even contrasted the treatment received by Mr. Mason in London, and the coldness and brevity of Lord Russell's replies to his representations, with the greater courtesy extended to Mr. Slidell at Paris. Mr. Mason remained here as the authorized agent of the Confederate Government until September 1863, with the vague hope that some unforeseen turn of events might yet shake the resolution and reverse the policy of Great Britain. At the end of two years this hope finally gave way, and he announced to Lord Russell the termination of his mission : "My Lord, Mr. Mason to Earl Russell. "24, Upper Seymour Street, Portman Square, "In a despatch from the Secretary of State of the Confederate States of America, dated the 4th of August last, and now just received, I am instructed to consider the commission which brought me to England as at an end, and I am directed to withdraw at once from the country. "The reasons for terminating this mission are set forth in an extract from the despatch which I have the honour to communicate herewith. The President believes that 'the Government of Her Majesty has determined to decline the overtures made through you for establishing by Treaty friendly relations between the two Governments, and entertains no intention of receiving you as the accredited Minister of this Government near the British Court. 1 "It is to be observed that, during the whole continuance of the war up to this time, the British Government had acted with reference to it in a spirit of selfish and inhuman calculation; and there is indeed but little doubt that an early recognition of the Confederacy by France was thwarted by the interference of that cold and sinister Government, that ever pursues its ends by indirection and perfects its hypocrisy under the specious cloak of extreme conscientiousness."-Pollard's First Year of the War, p. 347. Chap. XVII. "Under these circumstances your continued residence in London is neither conducive to the interests nor consistent with the dignity of this Government, and the President therefore requests that you consider your mission at an end, and that you withdraw with your Secretary from London.' 66 Having made known to your Lordship on my arrival here the character and purposes of the mission entrusted to me by my Government, I have deemed it due to courtesy thus to make known to the Government of Her Majesty its determination, and that I shall, as directed, at once withdraw from England. "Sir, Earl Russell to Mr. Mason. "Foreign Office, September 25, 1863. "I have had the honour of receiving your letter of the 21st instant, informing me that your Government have ordered you to withdraw from this country, on the ground that Her Majesty's Government have declined the overtures made through you for establishing by Treaty friendly relations, and have no intention of receiving you as the accredited Minister of the Confederate States at the British Court. "I have on other occasions explained to you the reasons which have induced Her Majesty's Government to decline the overtures you allude to, and which have hitherto prevented the British Court from recognizing you as the accredited Minister of an established State. "These reasons are still in force, and it is not necessary to repeat them. "I regret that circumstances have prevented my cultivating your personal acquaintance, which, in a different state of affairs, I should have done with much pleasure and satisfaction. "Earl Russell," wrote the Confederate Secretary of State shortly afterwards to Mr. Slidell, "having declined a personal interview with Mr. Mason, the latter, after some time spent in an unsatisfactory interchange of written communications, has been relieved of a, mission which had been rendered painful to himself and was productive of no benefit to his country." The anger of Mr. Davis's Government fell soon afterwards on the British Consuls resident in the South; and they received a formal notification that they "could no longer be permitted to exercise their functions, or even Chap.XVII. reside, within the limits of the Confederacy." The warmth with which these officials had remonstrated against the compulsory enlistment of British subjects in the Confederate forces had given no little offence. The other reasons assigned were, that it was a part of their duty to receive instructions from a Minister residing at Washington and accredited to the President of the United States; and that the British Government had lately dismissed one of them, who had suffered himself to be persuaded to send specie destined for payment of interest on the public debt of the State of Alabama from a blockaded port to London in a British ship-ofwar.1 1 Lord Lyons's view of these complaints was thus expressed in a despatch to Earl Russell, dated 20th November, 1862 "Mr. Benjamin objects very strongly to the British Consuls in the Southern States being under the orders of Her Majesty's Legation at Washington. This objection does not appear to me to be by any means unreasonable. I have indeed, as your Lordship is aware, long been of opinion that the connection between this Legation and the Consulates in the South was embarrassing and inconvenient, with regard both to the Government of the United States and to the de facto Government of the Confederate States. Mr. Benjamin's complaint concerning the dismissal of Mr. Magee by Her Majesty's Government is less reasonable. Mr. Magee was dismissed for assisting persons in the Confederate States to export specie from a blockaded port, and this was an act manifestly inconsistent with his duty as the officer of a neutral Sovereign, and a flagrant violation of the Queen's Proclamation. It is, not, however, surprising that my endeavours to prevent Mr. Magee's committing this breach of blockade should have increased the displeasure with which the Confederates viewed the connection between this Legation and the Southern Consulates. Mr. Benjamin's dissertation on the duty of paying debts may, indeed, be passed over, as entirely beside the question. I was of course as desirous as any one could be that money due to British subjects should be remitted to them; and I have ever been most anxious to diminish in every possible way, not inconsistent with positive duty, all the hardships inflicted on my countrymen by the blockade. But to export specie from Mobile was a manifest breach of the blockade of that port, and to send it through the blockading squadron in a British manof-war was a direct violation of the understanding with the United Chap.XVII. Before the first six months of the war were over, it must have been tolerably clear to the rulers of the Confederacy that to achieve independence they must rely on themselves alone. There is nothing, it is true, in which persons engaged in a desperate struggle are so likely to deceive themselves as the chance of obtaining succour from abroad; but there is no reason to suppose that they were under any actual delusion on this score, and they well knew that any official recognition, unless it led sooner or later to direct intervention in their favour, would be of no real use to them, and could indeed serve only to exasperate and embitter their adversaries. War is a game of hard blows: he who can strike hardest, and go on striking longest, wins. When the spring of 1864 approached, there remained little room to doubt that the Confederacy was being overpowered, gradually but surely. The revolted States west of the Mississippi, though still to a great extent unsubdued, were wholly cut off from those on the Atlantic; all Kentucky and Tennessee, though open States' Government in virtue of which Her Majesty's ships communicated with the blockaded ports. So long therefore as Her Majesty's Consuls in the South were under my orders, it was undoubtedly my duty to prevent their being concerned in any such proceeding. It so happened that the Confederate authorities were, at the time, particularly anxious to find the means of exporting specie, in order to pay for munitions of war procured in Europe; and it appeared afterwards that they had hoped that the British Government would allow Her Majesty's ships to be employed to carry through the blockading squadron specie sent in payment of purchases of this description made in Great Britain. It was natural therefore that my attempt to prevent the breach of blockade at Mobile, and the dismissal of Mr. Magee by Her Majesty's Government for being concerned in it, should be regarded with displeasure by the Confederates. It was of course equally my duty to hinder the British Agents under my orders from committing breaches of blockade, whatever might be the article to be exported, and whatever reasons the belligerent whose ports were blockaded might have for desiring the exportation of it. But it is not surprising that this affair should have increased the susceptibility of the Confederates with regard to the connection between this Legation and the Southern Consulates." to incursions from the south, were practically within Chap.XVII. the Federal lines, and the Federal forces were posted among the most easterly ranges of the rugged hill country on the confines of East Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. The State of Mississippi had been overrun and in part laid waste. The area from which the Confederates were able to draw reinforcements and supplies was thus reduced within comparatively narrow bounds, and their armies were fast dwindling away. Their whole forces in May 1864 were reckoned at 220,000 men; but of these 50,000 were in Texas and the other States west of the Mississippi; and the troops which could be brought into the field for the defence of Virginia, including those in the Shenandoah valley and the garrison of Richmond, hardly exceeded 60,000. The Federal army at the same date numbered in the aggregate not less than 970,000 soldiers, of whom (deducting those in hospital, on leave, and employed on detached service) upwards of 662,000 were available for duty. Including the reserves in and around Washington, there stood in Virginia or on its outskirts, ready for the spring campaign, more than 280,000 men. These huge masses of troops were now under the supreme control of General Grant, who commanded in person in Virginia, while in Tennessee three armies were under the orders of his principal lieutenant, Sherman, a bold and very skilful soldier.1 The forces of the Union were thus gathered into the hands of two leaders, capable of handling them as they had never been handled before. Both were men of iron determination, and thoroughly inured to war; both saw clearly the object to be accomplished, and the way to accomplish it. It is surprising that under such circumstances the war should have lasted, as it did, for twelve months longer. Yet, during all the rest of the year 1864, Lee stood at bay in Virginia, foiling his assail 1 These numbers are borrowed from Lieutenant-Colonel Fletcher's History of the American War, vol. iii, chap. xi. |