The extraordinary character of this demand was recognized at the time in Europe. The Count de Gasparin, after describing it as “a question of declaring war,” and an “ultimatum,” said: “Between great nations, between sister nations, it was a strange opening. The usage is hardly to commence with an _ultimatum_,--that is, to commence with the end. Ordinarily, when there has been a misunderstanding or regrettable act, especially when that act comes within a portion of the Law of Nations which is yet full of obscurity, the natural opening is to ask for explanations as to the intentions, and for reparation for what has been done, without mixing therewith an immediate menace of rupture.”[20] After expressing astonishment that a demand of apology “figured in the original programme,” which he pronounced entirely out of place, the impartial Frenchman proceeds: “Seeing such haste and proclamation so lofty of an exigence above debate, seeing the idea of an impious war accepted with so much ease by some and with such joy so little dissembled by others, Europe declared, without ambiguity or reserve, that, if England were not miraculously saved from her own undertaking, that, if she went so far as to fire a cannon at the North as an ally of the South, she would tear with her own hands her principal titles to the respect of the civilized world.”[21] Rejecting the pretension that the maintenance of peace was due to the “warlike measures of England,” the eloquent moralist exclaims, “America has just rendered to England the most signal service which ever a people rendered to another people,” and this by refusing the war which was menaced,--a war, as painted by him, where, in addition to untold calamity, would be the wretchedness of striking at the liberty of the world in alliance with slave-traders. How naturally he adds: “From the moment that she is only the ally of slave-traders, she has abdicated.”[22] The summary tone of the British Government and the contemporaneous preparations for war enhanced the difficulties peculiar to such a question; but it was easy to see, on examination, that the demand was in substantial conformity with American precedents, and accordingly the Rebels, who had been confined at Fort Warren, in Boston Harbor, were handed over to the British Government. * * * * *