No.
320.) On the same date Stoeckl was informed of the French overtures, and was instructed not to take a stand with France and Great Britain, but to limit his efforts to approval of any _agreement_ by the North and South to end the war.

Yet Stoeckl was given liberty of action if (as Gortchakoff did not believe) the time had assuredly come when both North and South were ready for peace, and it needed but the influence of some friendly hand to soothe raging passions and to lead the contending parties themselves to begin direct negotiations (_Ibid._, F.O.

to Stoeckl, Oct.

27, 1862 (O.S.).)] [Footnote 811: Mason Papers.

Slidell to Mason, Oct.