We reply: Yes, but they have not declared so to us.

You may rejoin: Their public declaration concludes the fact.

We, nevertheless, reply: It must be not their declaration, but the fact, that concludes the fact." [Footnote 180: The _Times_, June 3, 1861.] [Footnote 181: _Ibid._, June 11, 1861.] [Footnote 182: _U.S.Messages and Documents, 1861-2_, p.

87.] [Footnote 183: _Parliamentary Papers, 1862, Lords_, Vol.

XXV.
"Correspondence on Civil War in the United States." No.56.Lyons to Russell, June 17, 1861, reporting conference with Seward on June 15.] [Footnote 184: _U.S.Messages and Documents, 1861-62_, p.104.Adams to Seward, June 14, 1861.] [Footnote 185: Bancroft, the biographer of Seward, takes the view that the protests against the Queen's Proclamation, in regard to privateering and against interviews with the Southern commissioners were all unjustifiable.