The very thought that the blockade might become effective, in which case all precedent would demand respect for it, possibly caused Russell to use a tone not customary with him in upbraiding the North for a planned "barbarity." Within three months the blockade and its effectiveness was to be made the subject of the first serious parliamentary discussion on the Civil War in America.

In another three months the Government began to feel a pressure from its associate in "joint attitude," France, to examine again with much care its asserted policy of strict neutrality, and this because of the increased effectiveness of the blockade.

Meanwhile another "American question" was serving to cool somewhat British eagerness to go hand in hand with France.

For nearly forty years since independence from Spain the Mexican Republic had offered a thorny problem to European nations since it was difficult, in the face of the American Monroe Doctrine, to put sufficient pressure upon her for the satisfaction of the just claims of foreign creditors.

In 1860 measures were being prepared by France, Great Britain and Spain to act jointly in the matter of Mexican debts.