[Extract.]
Mr. Adams to Mr.
Seward.
No. 753.]
Legation of the United States,
London,
July 28, 1864.
Sir: No despatches have been received from the
department this week. This is probably to be attributed to the temporary
suspension of railway communication with New York at the date of the
steamer’s departure.
There is but little to note in the events of the past week. Parliament
will be prorogued on Saturday. Meanwhile the attendance is small, and
the business
[Page 229]
transacted merely
winding up. Mr. Lindsay’s movement degenerates, at last, into a bare
inquiry addressed to Lord Palmerston. I transmit a copy of the London
Times of the 26th instant, containing a report of his lordship’s rather
curt answer. Thus has terminated an operation which has cost much labor
and money to somebody or other.
* * * * * * *
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State, &c., &c.,
&c.
[From the
London Times of July 26,
1864.]
The Civil War in America.
Mr. Lindsay, before putting the question of
which he had given notice, said he had desired to have made a
statement, containing some important facts bearing upon the American
war, and tending to show how futile was the attempt to restore the
Union and to coerce the south; but as he had no opportunity now of
doing so, he begged simply to ask the first lord of the treasury if,
considering the great sacrifice of life and property occasioned by
the war still raging between the United States of America and the
Confederate States, and considering the loss the people of this
country have suffered by the war, it was the intention of her
Majesty’s government, in concert with the other powers of Europe, to
use their endeavors to bring about a suspension of hostilities.
Lord Palmerston. I can assure my honorable
friend that her Majesty’s government deeply lament the great
sacrifice of life and property in America and the distress which
that war has produced in this country. But we have not thought that
in the present state of things there was any advantage to be gained
by entering into concert with any other powers for the purpose of
proposing or offering mediation, or of negotiating with the
government of the United States or of the Confederate States to
bring about a termination of this unhappy war. [Hear, hear.]
