The Right Honorable Earl Russell to Charles Francis Adams, September 9, 1861

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The undersigned, her Majesty’s principal secretary of state for foreign affairs, has received a communication from Mr. Adams, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States at this court, dated the 3d instant, giving some information regarding the conduct of Mr. Bunch, her Majesty’s consul at Charleston, in the United States, and requesting, on the part of the government of the United States, that Mr. Bunch may at once be removed from his office.

The undersigned will, without hesitation, state to Mr. Adams that in pursuance of an agreement between the British and French governments, Mr. Bunch was instructed to communicate to the persons exercising authority in the so-called Confederate States, the desire of those governments, that the second, third, and fourth articles of the declaration of Paris should be observed by those States in the prosecution of the hostilities in which they were engaged. Mr. Adams will observe that the commerce of Great Britain and France is deeply interested in the maintenance of the articles providing that the flag covers the goods, and that the goods of a neutral taken on board a belligerent ship are not liable to condemnation.

Mr. Bunch, therefore, in what he has done in this matter, has acted in obedience to the instructions of his government, who accept the responsibility of his proceedings so far as they are known to the foreign department, and who cannot remove him from his office for having obeyed his instructions.

But when it is stated in a letter from some person not named, that the first step to the recognition of the southern States by Great Britain has been taken, the undersigned has to decline all responsibility for such statement.

Her Majesty’s government have already recognized the belligerent character of the southern States, and they will continue to consider them as belligerents. But her Majesty’s government have not recognized, and are not prepared to recognize the so-called Confederate States as a separate and independent State.

The undersigned requests Mr. Adams to accept the assurance of his highest consideration.