James Russell Soley, Professor U. S. Navy, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 7.1, The blockade and the cruisers
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

[180] capture; and that the only question for him to decide is whether the vessel can be charged with any illegal act, and, according to the decision, to release her or make her a prize.

The action taken by the British Government, upon receiving news of the event, was summary in the extreme. It was no new thing for the naval officers of a belligerent to commit an error by which a temporary injury resulted to a neutral. The usual course under such circumstances is for the injured party to make proper representations, assuming that the act was the error of a subordinate; upon which a disavowal is made, and in cases demanding it an apology and reparation, and with this the affair ends. All this was done in the case of the Trent; and though the representations of the British Government were made in suitable form, and some discretion was left with Lord Lyons as to his action, yet the two despatches sent by Earl Russell on the 30th of November were in reality not the opening of a negotiation, but an ultimatum. At the same time, every preparation for war was set on foot; vessels were fitted out, and troops were ordered to Canada; and the whole community, aroused by these measures, thought itself already on the verge of hostilities. Mr. Seward's despatch, written on the same day with Earl Russell's ultimatum, and communicated to the latter by Mr. Adams, gave ample assurance that the injury, such as it was, proceeded from the mistake of an individual. But this fact was concealed, after the despatch had been received, and the preparations were continued. Of course the moral effect of these preparations was to arouse a sympathy for the Southern cause throughout the length and breadth of England; and without further comment on the position of the English Government, it is enough to say that had it been influenced at this time by unfriendly motives, it could hardly have adopted a more unfriendly course of action.