He thought Lindsay's motion dying away for on consultation with "different parties, including Disraeli, Seymour Fitzgerald and Roebuck," it "has been so far reduced and diluted ...

as to make it only expressive of the opinion of the House that the present posture of affairs in America made the question of the recognition of the Confederate States worth the serious consideration of the Government.

It was so modified to prevent the Ministry making an issue upon it...." There was "no assurance that it would be sustained ...

even in that form." Lindsay had determined to postpone his motion "for a fortnight, so that all expectation from this quarter for the present is dished, and we must wait for 'King Cotton' to turn the screw still further[651]." On June, 20 Lindsay gave this notice of postponement, and no parliamentary comment was made[652].

It was a moment of extreme depression for the Confederate agents in Europe.
Slidell, yielding to Mason's pleas, gave up his idea of demanding recognition and wrote: "The position of our representatives in Europe is painful and almost humiliating; it might be tolerated if they could be consoled by the reflection that their presence was in any way advantageous to their cause but I am disposed to believe that we would have done better to withdraw after our first interview with Russell and Thouvenel[653]." [Illustration: PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH (_From a photograph by Elliott & Fry, Ltd._)] FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 580: _U.S.Messages and Documents, 1862-63_, Pt.