LYONS, RICHARD BICKERTON PEMELL, LORD. 



451 



Oxford, was graduated in 1838, and entered 

 the diplomatic service as attache at Athens in 

 1839, where his father was minister, becoming 

 a paid attache in 1844, and remaining there 

 until 1852. He was then transferred to Dres- 

 den, and in 1853 to Florence, where he was 

 appointed in 1856 secretary of legation, and 

 was promoted in 1858 envoy to Tuscany. On 

 Nov. 23, 1858, he succeeded his father to the 

 barony, and in December of the same year was 

 sent as minister to the United States. When 

 the civil war broke out he had a difficult part 

 to play, and it was in a measure owing to 

 his tact and judgment that war was averted 

 between the United States and Great Britain, 

 in consequence of the seizure of the Confeder- 

 ate commissioners Slidell and Mason on board 

 the British steamship " Trent," in November, 

 1861. He waited for instructions from Lord 

 Russell, the British Minister of Foreign Affairs, 

 before demanding the release of the prisoners. 



RICHARD BICKERTON PEMELL, LORD LYONS. 



When the dispatches came he presented the 

 demands of his Government, which were that 

 the commissioners should be given up and an 

 apology made for their capture. Secretary 

 Seward's contention that they were contra- 

 band of war was strenuously denied by Lord 

 Lyons and his chief, and the note of the British 

 Government was supported by communications 

 from Austria, France, Italy, Prussia, and Rus- 

 sia. Lord Lyons delivered an ultimatum, and 

 informed Mr. Seward that he would leave 

 Washington in seven days unless the British 

 demands were complied with. After a long 

 diplomatic correspondence, conducted by him 

 in a conciliatory spirit, the two Governments 

 finally arrived at a basis of settlement. Lord 

 Lyons conducted an intricate correspond- 

 ence with Secretary Seward and with Earl 

 Russell on the subject of the declaration of 

 Paris, and on the question of the blockade of 

 the Southern ports. On April 7, 1862, he con- 

 cluded at Washington, in behalf of Great 

 Britain, a treaty with the United States for the 

 suppression of the slave-trade, which gave ex- 



tensive rights of search to the cruisers of both 

 powers. During the course of the war he con- 

 ducted a correspondence with his Government 

 in relation to the recognition of the Southern 

 Confederacy, the emancipation proclamation, 

 the u Alabama" question, and other matters of 

 diplomatic moment. In February, 1865, he 

 resigned his post of minister and envoy ex- 

 traordinary to the United States on account 

 of failing health. In August he was ap- 

 pointed ambassador at Constantinople, and in 

 July, 1867, he was transferred to Paris as Brit- 

 ish ambassador at the French court. He re- 

 mained at that important post more than 

 twenty years, through the agitated period of 

 the Franco-Prussian War, the re-establishment 

 of the republic, and the presidencies of Thiers, 

 McMahon, and Grevy. He had several con- 

 versations with the Due de Grammont, the for- 

 eign minister of Napoleon III, in relation to the 

 candidature of the Prince of Hohenzollern for 

 the Spanish throne, and endeavored to avert 

 the war, but declined to pledge his Government 

 to bring pressure to bear on Prussia on the 

 question of forbidding the German prince to 

 be a candidate. When the siege of Paris be- 

 gan, he left with all the other principal minis- 

 ters, except Mr. Washburn. In 1873 he con- 

 cluded negotiations with the French Govern- 

 ment for the renewal of the commercial treaty 

 that the Emperor Napoleon had made with 

 England in 1860, but which had been replaced 

 by a convention with less liberal provisions 

 negotiated by M. Thiers. Through the efforts 

 of Lord Lyons the old treaty was revived pro- 

 visionally for three years. When Queen Vic- 

 toria visited the Continent in 1876, Lord Lyons 

 received her at La Villette, and introduced her 

 to Marshal MacMahon. Lord Lyons contin- 

 ued to hold the appointment of minister at 

 Paris until November. 1887. He was created 

 Viscount Lyons of Christ Church, in the coun- 

 ty of Southampton, in November, 1881, and 

 on his obligatory retirement from the post of 

 minister at Paris, on reaching the age of seven- 

 ty, he was advanced to an earldom. The Mar- 

 quis of Salisbury, in 1886, asked him to join 

 his ministry as Secretary of State for Foreign 

 Affairs, but he declined the office. His sister 

 was the mother of the present Duke of Nor- 

 folk, and shortly before his death Lord Lyons 

 joined the communion of the Catholic Church. 

 He had won the gratitude of the Church by first 

 persuading Count Beust, the Austrian ambas- 

 sador, to object to the expulsion of a convent 

 of German Jesuits in Paris on international 

 grounds, and then, when a precedent had been 

 established, opposing the suppression of the 

 ancient college of the English Benedictines at 

 Douay. Lord Lyons intended to complete a 

 course of theological study before being for- 

 mally admitted into the Church. When seized 

 with paralysis on November 28, he received 

 the last sacrament at the hands of Rev. Dr. 

 Butt, Bishop of South wark. The adherents of 

 the English Church, to which he formerly be- 



