Russell again refused to pledge his Government, but on April 12 he wrote to Lyons that British Ministers were "in no hurry to recognize the separation as complete and final[126]." In the early morning of that same day the armed conflict in America had begun, and on the day following, April 13, the first Southern victory had been recorded in the capture of Fort Sumter.

The important question which the man at the head of the British Foreign Office had now immediately to decide was, what was to be England's attitude, under international law, toward the two combatants in America.

In deciding this question, neither sentiment nor ideals of morality, nor humanitarianism need play any part; England's _first_ need and duty were to determine and announce for the benefit of her citizens the correct position, under International law, which must be assumed in the presence of certain definite facts.
FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 31: Dr.Newton asserts that at the end of the 'fifties Great Britain made a sharp change of policy.

(_Cambridge History of British Foreign Policy_, Vol.

II, p.