"Neither did the object to be gained seem commensurate with the risk.

For it was surely of no consequence whether one or two more men were added to the two or three who had already been so long here.

They would scarcely make a difference in the action of the Government after once having made up its mind[407]." The interview with Adams, so Palmerston wrote to Delane on the same day, November 12, was reassuring: "MY DEAR DELANE, "I have seen Adams to-day, and he assures me that the American paddle-wheel was sent to intercept the _Nashville_ if found in these seas, but not to meddle with any ship under a foreign flag.

He said he had seen the commander, and had advised him to go straight home; and he believed the steamer to be now on her way back to the United States.

This is a very satisfactory explanation.
Yours sincerely, PALMERSTON[408]." In fact, neither Adams' diary nor his report to Seward recorded quite the same statement as that here attributed to him by Palmerston, and this became later, but fortunately after the question of the _Trent_ had passed off the stage, a matter of minor dispute.