On the 30th of November, 1861, Lord Russell forwarded the despatches to Windsor, and they confirmed the Queen’s suspicions. She disliked their tone, and took them to the Prince Consort, who quite endorsed her opinion. Though he was so ill that he could hardly hold his pen, he drafted a Memorandum for the Queen, complaining of the dispatch to the American Government, and suggesting a more courteous and friendly way of stating the case against them. Even this draft the Queen herself revised and slightly toned down. The point on which she and the Prince Consort insisted was that all through Lord Russell should emphasise the assumption that as the United States Government could not have intended to wantonly insult England, they would naturally be desirous of offering reparation for any breach of international law Captain Wilkes had committed, either by disobeying or misunderstanding his instructions. The words of the royal draft were adopted, and with the happiest result. When the despatch arrived at Washington, Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, told Lord Lyons, the British Minister, that the wording of it meant peace or war. He begged him, therefore, to let him see it privately before it was presented officially. It was sent to him. After reading it, Seward went immediately to Lord Lyons and told him that the tone of the despatch was so courteous and friendly that it would enable him to avert war, in spite of the recriminatory outcry of the press, the vote of thanks which Congress had passed to Captain Wilkes, and the ovations he had received in Northern cities. Seward was now able to extricate his Government from a false position, by the loophole of escape which the Prince Consort’s sagacity had opened for him. With some difficulty he reconciled the Government and people of the North to admit that Captain Wilkes acted without instructions, that a breach of international law had been committed, but that the prisoners must be “cheerfully liberated.” The difficulty of his task was unfortunately aggravated by the menacing warlike preparations of the English Government, and the departure of troops for Canada before he had an opportunity of answering the despatch. On the 9th of January, 1862, the news that the dispute was settled reached the Queen. She replied, in a note to Lord Palmerston, that she was sure he would recognise that the peaceful issue to which the quarrel had been brought was “greatly owing to her beloved Prince,” whose Memorandum altering the despatch to the American Government “was the last thing he ever wrote.”[129] Palmerston’s warlike preparations, which nearly rendered a diplomatic solution of the difficulty impossible, cost the country £5,000,000.