A World on Fire_ Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War - Amanda Foreman [134]
Ironically, while Adams was accusing Lord Russell of being insincere, the French emperor was playing a multiple hand between his own ministers and the rival American camps. Much to the annoyance of everyone except the Confederates, Napoleon held several private interviews in April with William Schaw Lindsay, MP (who was also a shipping magnate). Lindsay had played a significant role during Anglo-French negotiations of the 1860 trade treaty and was easily able to gain an audience with the emperor without exciting the suspicion of the British embassy. Napoleon said everything Lindsay wished to hear.17 John Slidell’s spirits soared when Lindsay reported back to him. “This is entirely confidential,” he wrote to James Mason in London, “but you can say to Lord Campbell, Mr. Gregory etc. that I now have positive and authentic evidence that France only waits the assent of England for recognition [of the South] and other more cogent measures.”18 Russell was so annoyed by Lindsay’s interference that he refused to meet him when the MP returned to England. The Confederates were elated, however, by the news from France; Consul Morse reported to Seward that the “Rebels here confidently predict two or three great Southern victories and the recognition of the Confederate States before the adjournment of Parliament.”19
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The commencement of Parliament had brought with it the resumption of Lady Palmerston’s “at homes.” Neither James Mason nor Henry Hotze was on the guest list, but Benjamin Moran was able to finagle an invitation for himself, Charles Wilson, and Henry Adams. He was one of the first guests to arrive at Cambridge House on March 22 and spent the early part of the evening gawking at his surroundings. The “drawing rooms are not so large as one might expect,” he pronounced, but they were brilliantly lit for the occasion, and as more people entered they “began to assume an animated and even gorgeous appearance.”20 Too shy to speak to strangers, he hovered in corners and by tables. Henry Adams, on the other hand, arrived determined to make this his entrée into society. He longed to be friends with “Counts and Barons and numberless untitled but high-placed characters.”21 Henry just hoped that the “unfortunate notoriety” caused by his caustic comments on English high society in “A Visit to Manchester” had been forgotten in the intervening three months. At the foot of the lofty staircase he gave his name to the footman, only to hear it called up as “Mr. Handrew Adams.” He corrected him and the footman shouted loudly, “Mr. Hantony Hadams.” “With some temper,” Henry corrected him again, and this time the footman called out, “Mr. Halexander Hadams.” Henry accepted defeat and “under this name made [my] bow for the last time to Lord Palmerston who certainly knew no better.”22 After this painful event, Henry decided it was not worth trying to storm the social ramparts of 94 Piccadilly.
“I have no doubt that if I were to stay here another year, I should become extremely fond of the place and the life,” Henry mused to his brother Charles Francis Jr. on April 11. But for now he had a “greediness for revenge.” He approved of the chief’s “putting on the diplomatic screws.” England should not be allowed to wriggle out of her responsibility for aiding the Confederates. At least the Nashville “has been taken or destroyed,” he added. Moreover, it turned out that the Harvey Birch, which Confederate captain Pegram had triumphantly claimed as his first capture, belonged to Confederate sympathizers. Writing on the same day, Bulloch warned the Confederate secretary of the navy, Stephen