Bunch had explained to Lyons on June 23 that this was his practice on the ground that "there is really no way left for the merchants but through me.

If Mr.Seward objects I cannot help it.

I must leave it to your Lordship and H.M.'s Government to support me.

My own despatch to Lord J.Russell I must send in some way, and so I take the responsibility of aiding British interests by sending the mercantile letters as well[359]." And in Bunch's printed report to Lyons on Mure's arrest, his reply as to the private letters was, "I could not consider him [Mure] as being disqualified from being the bearer of a bag to Earl Russell, by his doing what everyone who left Charleston was doing daily[360]...." Officially Lyons, on September 2, had reported a conversation with Belligny, the French Consul at Charleston, now in Washington, writing, "I am confirmed in the opinion that the negotiation, which was difficult and delicate, was managed with great tact and good judgment by the two Consuls[361]." But this referred merely to the use of Trescott and its results, not to Bunch's use of Mure.

The British Government was, indeed, prepared to defend the action of its agents in securing, _indirectly_, from the South, an acknowledgment of certain principles of international law.