Russell had guarded against the complication feared by Thouvenel, but he still hoped by a half-pledge to the North and a half-threat to the South to secure from both belligerents a renunciation of privateering.

In short he was not yet fully convinced of the wisdom of the French limitation.

Moreover he believed that Thouvenel might yet be won to his own opinion, for in an unprinted portion of this same private letter to Lyons of May 18 Russell wrote: "I have further to state to you, with reference to my despatch of this day that H.M.Govt.

were in the first instance inclined to propose to both of the contending parties to adopt the first clause of the Declaration of Paris, by which privateering is renounced.

But after communication with the French Govt.