October 23 Palmerston wrote his approval of the Cabinet postponement, but declared Lewis' doctrine of "no recognition of Southern independence until the North had admitted it" was unsound[800].

The next day he again wrote: "...

to talk to the belligerents about peace at present would be as useless as asking the winds during the last week to let the waters remain calm[801]." This expression by Palmerston on the day after the question apparently had come to a conclusion was the result of the unexpected persistence of Russell and Gladstone.

Replying to Palmerston's letter of the twenty-third, Russell wrote: "As no good could come of a Cabinet, I put it off.

But tho' I am quite ready to agree to your conclusions for the present, I cannot do so for G.Lewis' reasons...." "G.