After having served as the Prime Minister for a number of years, you are now the Foreign Secretary of Lord Palmerston and are his chief negotiator. Your government has tried to stay neutral in the Union's war with the Confederacy. In May, 1861, Queen Victoria declared England's neutrality and recognized the Confederacy's belligerent status, thereby giving the Confederates the same privileges as the Union in foreign ports. Prior to Mason and Slidell's aborted trip to England, the Confederacy had sent an earlier delegation to you and Lord Palmerston. You and Lord Palmerston were very careful to stay neutral towards them.
However, you were incensed by Captain Charles Wilkes' actions in seizing Mason and Slidell on a neutral British mail steamer, sailing under the British flag, on a scheduled voyage between neutral ports. This incident is an outrageous insult to the British crown and the British people are indignant and enraged. You heard Lord Palmerston say, "I don't know whether you are going to stand for this, but I'll be damned if I do." You know that Lord Palmerston is prepared to go to war if necessary. You know that the British people are up in arms over this egregious insult to the British crown.
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Lord Palmerston had some lawyers review the case. They found the seizure to be illegal and unjustifiable by international law. By law Captain Wilkes should have taken the matter of the seizure to prize court and he did not. Rather, he took it upon himself to be the judicial tribunal.
Lord Palmerston has taken extraordinary measures in these circumstances. He has sent 11,000 troops to fortify the Canadian border and preparing to send 28,400 more. The London shipyards are at work enhancing the naval fleet. More importantly for the Union, England has decided to stop exporting saltpeter, which is a key component of gunpowder. The Union had a huge order recently which the Prime Minister did not fill. You know the Union will have difficulty conducting the war against the Confederacy without saltpeter.
Lord Palmerston has given President Lincoln 7 days to respond.