At the end of the day, Britain was in a weak position at this point, which was why a diplomat like Palmerston found things so difficult.
Thinking back to his days as the pioneer of gunboat diplomacy, no matter where he went, even the slightest sneeze from him would scare the wits out of others; with a casual beckon of his hand, they would offer him their faces to be slapped.
He had always been able to seize the initiative in everything, always so effortlessly at ease. No matter where he went, someone would take the initiative to deliver crucial intelligence.
Unfortunately, those days were gone forever. Now, neither the Russians nor the Austrians took him seriously.
In Russia, he had lived in constant fear and suffered humiliation. In the Austrian Empire, he was simply left sitting on the sidelines; whether talks happened at all depended entirely on the other side's mood, and he did not even have the right to bargain.
Palmerston had considered dragging things out like this. As long as he could stall until the United States surrendered, the Austrian Empire would have no bargaining chips left.
After all, the other side seemed to lack any sense of urgency. If he truly succeeded, it would be an achievement without equal.
Yet before long, he wanted nothing more than to slap himself across the mouth, because the Americans had arrived.
Franklin Pierce was actually quite helpless as well. He had not wanted to come begging the Austrian Empire for help.
But now, the only countries capable of standing against Britain were France and Austria.
As for the other nations, even if they were willing to help, they could not have any practical effect. Given Britain's strength at this time, for an ordinary country to enter the war was