Great Britain and the American Civil War Part 48

[Footnote 1078: _Army and Navy Gazette_, June 6, 1863.]

[Footnote 1079: Lyons Papers, May 30, 1863.]

[Footnote 1080: Callahan, _Diplomatic History of the Southern Confederacy_, p. 184. Callahan's Chapter VIII, "The Crisis in England"

is misnamed, for Roebuck's motion and the whole plan of "bringing in the Tories" never had a chance of succeeding, as, indeed, Callahan himself notes. His detailed examination of the incident has unfortunately misled some historians who have derived from his work the idea that the critical period of British policy towards America was Midsummer, 1863, whereas it occurred, in fact, in October-November, 1862 (e.g., Schmidt, "Wheat and Cotton during the Civil War," pp. 413 _seq_. Schmidt's thesis is largely dependent on placing the critical period in 1863).]

[Footnote 1081: Mason Papers. To Slidell.]

[Footnote 1082: Callahan, pp. 184-5.]

[Footnote 1083: _Ibid._, p. 186. To Benjamin.]

[Footnote 1084: Mason Papers. Mason to Slidell, June 27, 1863. Mason wrote: "The question of veracity is raised."]

[Footnote 1085: _Ibid._, Slidell to Mason, June 29, 1863.]

[Footnote 1086: _Ibid._, To Slidell.]

[Footnote 1087: _Ibid._, To Mason. "Monday eve." (June 29, 1863.)]

[Footnote 1088: Callahan, 186; and Hansard, 3rd Ser., CLXXI, p. 1719.]

[Footnote 1089: Punch's favourite cartoon of Roebuck was of a terrier labelled "Tear 'em," worrying and snarling at his enemies.]

[Footnote 1090: Bright and Lindsay had, in fact, long been warm friends.

They disagreed on the Civil War, but this did not destroy their friends.h.i.+p.]

[Footnote 1091: Hansard, 3rd. Ser., CLXXI, pp. 1771-1842, for debate of June 30. Roebuck's egotism was later related by Lamar, then in London on his way to Russia as representative of the South. A few days before the debate Lamar met Roebuck at Lindsay's house and asked Roebuck whether he expected Bright to take part in the debate. "No, sir," said Roebuck sententiously, "Bright and I have met before. It was the old story--the story of the swordfish and the whale! No, sir! Mr. Bright will not cross swords with me again." Lamar attended the debate and saw Roebuck given by Bright the "most deliberate and tremendous pounding I ever witnessed." (_Education of Henry Adams_, pp. 161-2.)]

[Footnote 1092: Mason Papers. To Slidell, July 1, 1863.]

[Footnote 1093: July 1, 1863.]

[Footnote 1094: July 4, 1863.]

[Footnote 1095: Hansard, 3rd. Ser., CLXXII, pp. 67-73.]

[Footnote 1096: Mason Papers. To Mason, July 4, 1863. In fact Disraeli, throughout the Civil War, favoured strict neutrality, not agreeing with many of his Tory colleagues. He at times expressed himself privately as believing the Union would not be restored but was wise enough to refrain from such comment publicly. (Monypenny, _Disraeli_, IV, p. 328.)]

[Footnote 1097: Hansard, 3rd. Ser., CLXXII, p. 252.]

[Footnote 1098: _The Index_ felt it necessary to combat this, and on July 9 published a "letter from Paris" stating such criticisms to be negligible as emanating wholly from minority and opposition papers. "All the sympathies of the French Government have, from the outset, been with the South, and this, quite independently of other reasons, dictated the line which the opposition press has consistently followed; the Orleanist _Debats_, Republican _Siecle_, The Palais Royal _Opinion_, all join in the halloo against the South."]

[Footnote 1099: Palmerston MS. July 9, 1863.]

[Footnote 1100: Hansard, 3rd Ser., CLXXII, 554 _seq_., July 10, 1863.]

[Footnote 1101: In the same issue appeared a letter from the New York correspondent of the _Times_, containing a similar prediction but in much stronger terms. For the last half of the war the _Times_ was badly served by this correspondent who invariably reported the situation from an extreme anti-Northern point of view. This was Charles Mackay who served the _Times_ in New York from March, 1862, to December, 1865.

(Mackay, _Forty Years' Recollections_, II, p. 412.) Possibly he had strict instructions. During this same week Lyons, writing privately to Russell, minimized the "scare" about Lee's advance. He reported that Mercier had ordered up a war-s.h.i.+p to take him away if Was.h.i.+ngton should fall. Lyons cannily decided such a step for himself inadvisable, since it would irritate Seward and in case the unexpected happened he could no doubt get pa.s.sage on Mercier's s.h.i.+p. When news came of the Southern defeat at Gettysburg and of Grant's capture of Vicksburg, Lyons thought the complete collapse of the Confederacy an imminent possibility. Leslie Stephen is a witness to the close relations of Seward and Lyons at this time. He visited Was.h.i.+ngton about a month after Gettysburg and met Seward, being received with much cordiality as a _verbal_ champion in England of the North. (He had as yet published no signed articles on the war.) In this conversation he was amused that Seward spoke of the friendly services of "Monkton Mill," as a publicist on political economy. (Maitland, _Leslie Stephen_, p. 120.)]

[Footnote 1102: In this issue a letter from the New York correspondent, dated July 1, declared that all of the North except New England, would welcome Lee's triumph: "... he and Mr. Jefferson Davis might ride in triumph up Broadway, amid the acclamations of a more enthusiastic mult.i.tude than ever a.s.sembled on the Continent of America." The New York city which soon after indulged in the "draft riots" might give some ground for such writing, but it was far fetched, nevertheless--and New York was not the North.]

[Footnote 1103: Hansard, 3rd Ser., CLXXII, 661 _seq_. Ever afterwards Roebuck was insistent in expressions of dislike and fear of America. At a banquet to him in Sheffield in 1869 he delivered his "political testament": "Beware of Trades Unions; beware of Ireland; beware of America." (Leader, _Autobiography and Letters of Roebuck_, p. 330.)]

[Footnote 1104: May 31, 1864, Lindsay proposed to introduce another recognition motion, but on July 25 complained he had had no chance to make it, and asked Palmerston if the Government was not going to act.

The reply was a brief negative.]

[Footnote 1105: The _Times_, July 18, 1863.]

[Footnote 1106: The power of the _Times_ in influencing public opinion through its news columns was very great. At the time it stood far in the lead in its foreign correspondence and the information printed necessarily was that absorbed by the great majority of the British public. Writing on January 23, 1863, of the mis-information spread about America by the _Times_, Goldwin Smith a.s.serted: "I think I never felt so much as in this matter the enormous power which the _Times_ has, not from the quality of its writing, which of late has been rather poor, but from its exclusive command of publicity and its exclusive access to a vast number of minds. The _ignorance_ in which it has been able to keep a great part of the public is astounding." (To E.S. Beesly. Haultain, _Correspondence of Goldwin Smith_, p. 11.)]

[Footnote 1107: _The Index_, July 23, 1863, p. 200. The italics are mine. The implication is that a day customarily celebrated as one of rejoicing has now become one for gloom. No _Englishman_ would be likely to regard July 4 as a day of rejoicing.]

[Footnote 1108: Mason Papers. To Mason, July 25, 1863.]

[Footnote 1109: _U.S. Diplomatic Correspondence_, 1863, Pt. I, p. 329.

Adams to Seward, July 30, 1863.]

[Footnote 1110: Mason, _Mason_, p. 449.]

[Footnote 1111: Sept. 4, 1863. The _Times_ was now printing American correspondence sharply in contrast to that which preceded Gettysburg when the exhaustion and financial difficulties of the North were dilated upon. Now, letters from Chicago, dated August 30, declared that, to the writer's astonishment, the West gave every evidence that the war had fostered rather than checked, prosperity. (Sept. 15, 1863.).]

[Footnote 1112: Mason Papers. Mason to Slidell, Sept. 14 and 15, 1863.

Slidell to Mason, Sept. 16, 1863.]

[Footnote 1113: McRea wrote to Hotze, September 17, 1863, that in his opinion Slidell and Hotze were the only Southern agents of value diplomatically in Europe (Hotze Correspondence). He thought all others would soon be recalled. Slidell, himself, even in his letter to Mason, had the questionable taste of drawing a rosy picture of his own and his family's intimate social intercourse with the Emperor and the Empress.]

[Footnote 1114: Sept. 23, 1863.]

[Footnote 1115: e.g., _Manchester Guardian_, Sept. 23, 1863, quoted in _The Index_, Sept. 24, p. 343.]

[Footnote 1116: Mason's _Mason_, p. 456.]

[Footnote 1117: Russell Papers. To Russell, Oct. 26, 1863.]

[Footnote 1118: _Ibid._, Lyons wrote after receiving a copy of a despatch sent by Russell to Grey, in France, dated October 10, 1863.]

[Footnote 1119: F.O., Am., 896. No. 788. Confidential. Lyons to Russell, Nov. 3, 1863. "It seems, in fact, to be certain that at the commencement of a war with Great Britain, the relative positions of the United States and its adversary would be very nearly the reverse of what they would have been if a war had broken out three or even two years ago. Of the two Powers, the United States would now be the better prepared for the struggle--the coasts of the United States would present few points open to attack--while the means of a.s.sailing suddenly our own ports in the neighbourhood of this country, and especially Bermuda and the Bahamas, would be in immediate readiness. Three years ago Great Britain might at the commencement of a war have thrown a larger number of trained troops into the British Provinces on the continent than could have been immediately sent by the United States to invade those provinces. It seems no exaggeration to say that the United States could now without difficulty send an Army exceeding in number, by five to one, any force which Great Britain would be likely to place there."]

[Footnote 1120: _Ibid._, Private. Lyons to Russell, Nov. 3, 1863.]

[Footnote 1121: Lyons Papers. To Lyons.]

[Footnote 1122: Rhodes, IV, p. 393. Nov. 20, 1863.]

[Footnote 1123: _The Liberator_, Nov. 27, 1863. I have not dwelt upon Beecher's tour of England and Scotland in 1863, because its influence in "winning England" seems to me absurdly over-estimated. He was a gifted public orator and knew how to "handle" his audiences, but the majority in each audience was friendly to him, and there was no such "crisis of opinion" in 1863 as has frequently been stated in order to exalt Beecher's services.]

[Footnote 1124: Dodd, _Jefferson Davis_, p. 319. The words are Dodd's.]