Great Britain. The other was a Confederate victory giving him at least a favourable prediction of a final victory.
His urgent and repeated attempts to persuade the English to interfere, or at least recognize the Government of Richmond, had failed. They had failed in spite of the nobility, Mr. Gladstone, and the Prime Minister, whose natural sympathies were with the Southern half of the country and the courtly genius which had hitherto predominated in American affairs; and also in spite of the high protective tariff just passed by the Union, causing great loss to British industry.
He had failed because England was ruled by its people. These people had an inherent repugnance to the institution of slavery which no cabinet dared face; and strange to relate, the Queen of England would not hear of it. Queen Victoria probably had as broad a vision and as deep an understanding of the future of the Anglo-Saxon strain as any person then
