But there are other questions not less important to be solved in the North.

Will the Abolitionists succeed in proclaiming freedom to the Slaves of all those who have resisted?
I guess not.
But then the Union will be restored with its old disgrace and its old danger.

I confess I do not see any way to any fair solution except separation--but that the North will not hear of--nor in the moment of success would it be of any use to give them unpalatable advice[629]." Two days preceding this letter, Thouvenel, at last fully informed of Mercier's trip to Richmond, instructed him that France had no intention to depart from her attitude of strict neutrality and that it was more than ever necessary to wait events[630].
Mercier's renewed efforts to start a movement toward mediation were then wholly personal.

Neither France nor Great Britain had as yet taken up this plan, nor were they likely to so long as Northern successes were continued.

In London, Mason, suffering a reaction from his former high hopes, summed up the situation in a few words: "This Government passive and ignorant, France alert and mysterious.