Bright to Sumner, Dec.

6, 1862.] [Footnote 836: Goldwin Smith told of this plan in 1904, in a speech at a banquet in Ottawa.

He had destroyed Gladstone's letter outlining it.
_The Ottawa Sun_, Nov.

16, 1904.] [Footnote 837: Almost immediately after Lyons' return to Washington, Stoeckl learned from him, and from Mercier, also, that England and France planned to offer mediation and that if this were refused the South would be recognized.

Stoeckl commented to the Foreign Office: "What good will this do ?" It would not procure cotton unless the ports were forced open and a clear rupture made with the North.