It was in this view that I must be permitted to express the great regret I had felt on learning the decision to issue the Queen's proclamation, which at once raised the insurgents to the level of a belligerent State, and still more the language used in regard to it by Her Majesty's ministers in both houses of Parliament before and since.

Whatever might be the design, there could be no shadow of doubt that the effect of these events had been to encourage the friends of the disaffected here.

The tone of the press and of private opinion indicated it strongly." Russell's answer was that Adams was placing more stress on recent events than they deserved.

The Government had taken the advice of the Law Officers and as a result had concluded that "as a question merely of _fact_, a war existed....

Under such circumstances it seemed scarcely possible to avoid speaking of this in the technical sense as _justum bellum_, that is, a war of two sides, without in any way implying an opinion of its justice, as well as to withhold an endeavour, so far as possible, to bring the management of it within the rules of modern civilized warfare.