He had consulted Adams, who had no instructions but felt confident the United States would soon formally declare the end of the war.

The "piracy proclamation" was certainly a strange proceeding.

Derby pushed for an answer as to whether the Government intended to let it go by unnoticed.
Russell replied that a despatch from Bruce showed that "notice" had been taken of it.

Derby asked whether the papers would be presented to Parliament; Russell "was understood to reply in the affirmative[1314]." Derby's inquiry was plainly merely a hectoring of Russell for his quick shift from the position taken a month earlier.

But the very indifference of Russell to this attack, his carelessness and evasion in reply, indicate confidence that Parliament was as eager as the Government to satisfy the North and to avoid friction.