THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION The finality of the British Cabinet decision in November, 1862, relative to proposals of mediation or intervention was not accepted at the moment though time was to prove its permanence.

The British press was full of suggestions that the first trial might more gracefully come from France since that country was presumed to be on more friendly terms with the United States[846].

Others, notably Slidell at Paris, held the same view, and on January 8, 1863, Slidell addressed a memorandum to Napoleon III, asking separate recognition of the South.

The next day, Napoleon dictated an instruction to Mercier offering friendly mediation in courteous terms but with no hint of an armistice or of an intended recognition of the South[847].

Meanwhile, Mercier had again approached Lyons alleging that he had been urged by Greeley, editor of the _New York Tribune_, to make an isolated French offer, but that he felt this would be contrary to the close harmony hitherto maintained in French-British relations.