Note 18 — XXXV THE FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE WAR 1846–1848

For the benefit of the Mexican government, the Foreign Office wrote to Bankhead (13no. 15), June 1, 1846: “She [Great Britain] would find herself engaged in a war with a Nation with whom she would have no personal cause of quarrel, in behalf of a Nation and Government which she has repeatedly warned in the most friendly and urgent manner of their danger, and which, solely in consequence of their wilfull contempt of that warning, have at last plunged headlong down the precipice from which the British Government spared no efforts to save them”; and Bankhead was instructed to let Paredes know “the real state of the case without disguise.” Aberdeen’s thus declining to interfere on behalf of Mexico was particularly natural in view of the talk that had occurred with the Mexican minister at London while the Oregon issue was pending (vol. i, p. 115, and note 27 infra). As a step intended to settle that issue had now been taken, it appeared probable that there would be no longer any occasion to tow Mexico along, and, as Aberdeen was aware on June 1 that hostilities had occurred near the Rio Grande, it seemed important to disentangle himself completely, so as to be able to act with a free hand.