He renews attack on the line already taken on May 18[188].

From this time on, throughout and after the war, this criticism was repeatedly made and with increasing bitterness.
British friends of the North joined in the American outcry.

By mere reiteration it became in the popular mind on both sides of the Atlantic an accepted and well-founded evidence of British governmental unfriendliness in May, 1861.

At the conclusion of the Civil War, John Bright in Parliament, commenting on the causes of American ill-will, declared that the Government of 1861, knowing that Adams was on his way, should in mere courtesy, have waited his arrival.

Then, said Bright, the Proclamation, entirely justifiable in itself, might have been issued without offence and without embittering the United States[189].
Had in fact a "pledge to wait" been given to Dallas; and was the Proclamation hasty and premature?
Russell always denied he had given any such pledge, and the text of Dallas' report of the interview of May 1 would seem to support that denial[190].