the one side the Confederate States—as the seceding states were
called—were animated by a resolution to protect their property.
On the other side the “conscience” of the North was excited
by a passionate desire to wipe out the blot of slavery. Thus
both parties were affected by some of the most powerful considerations
which can influence mankind, while the North were
further actuated by the natural incentive to preserve the union,
which was threatened with disruption. The progress of the
great struggle was watched with painful attention in England.
The most important manufacturing interest in England was
paralysed by the loss of the raw cotton, which was obtained
almost exclusively from the United States, and tens of thousands
of workpeople were thrown out of employment. The distress
which resulted naturally created a strong feeling in favour of
intervention, which might terminate the war and open the
Southern ports to British commerce; and the initial successes
which the Confederates secured seemed to afford some justification
for such a proceeding. In the course of 1862 indeed, when the
Confederate armies had secured many victories, Gladstone,
speaking at Newcastle, used the famous expression that President
Jefferson Davis had “made a nation”; and Lord Palmerston’s
language in the House of Commons—while opposing a motion
for the recognition of the South—induced the impression that
his thoughts were tending in the same direction as Mr Gladstone’s.
The emperor Napoleon, in July of the same year, confidentially
asked the British minister whether the moment had not come
for recognizing the South; and in the following September
Lord Palmerston was himself disposed in concert with France
to offer to mediate on the basis of separation. Soon afterwards,
however, the growing exhaustion of the South improved the
prospects of the Northern States: an increasing number of
persons in Great Britain objected to interfere in the interests of
slavery; and the combatants were allowed to fight out their
quarrel without the interference of Europe.
At the beginning of the war, Lord John Russell (who was made a peer as Earl Russell in 1861) acknowledged the Southern States as belligerents. His decision caused some ill-feeling at Washington; but it was inevitable. For the North had proclaimed a blockade of the Southern ports; and it would have been both inconvenient and unfair if Lord Russell had decided to recognize the blockade and had refused to acknowledge the belligerent rights of the Southern States. Lord Russell’s decision, however, seemed to indicate some latent sympathy for the Southern cause; and the irritation which was felt in the North was increased by the news that the Southern States wereThe “Trent” incident. accrediting two gentlemen to represent them at Paris and at London. These emissaries, Messrs Mason and Slidell, succeeded in running the blockade and in reaching Cuba, where they embarked on the “Trent,” a British mail steamer sailing for England. On her passage home the “Trent” was stopped by the Federal steamer “San Jacinto”; she was boarded, and Messrs Mason and Slidell were arrested. There was no doubt that the captain of the “San Jacinto” had acted irregularly. While he had the right to stop the “Trent,” examine the mails, and, if he found despatches for the enemy among them, carry the vessel into an American port for adjudication, he had no authority to board the vessel and arrest two of her passengers. “The British government,” to use its own language, “could not allow such an affront to the national honour to pass without due reparation.” They decided on sending what practically amounted to an ultimatum to the Federal government, calling upon it to liberate the prisoners and to make a suitable apology. The presentation of this ultimatum, which was accompanied by the despatch of troops to Canada, was very nearly provoking war with the United States. If, indeed, the ultimatum had been presented in the form in which it was originally framed, war might have ensued. But at the prince consort’s suggestion its language was considerably modified, and the responsibility for the outrage was thrown on the officer who committed it, and not on the government of the Republic. It ought not to be forgotten that this important modification was the last service rendered to his adopted country by the prince consort before his fatal illness. He died before the answer to the despatch was received; and his death deprived the queen of an adviser who had stood by her side since the earlier days of her reign, and who, by his prudence and conduct, had done much to raise the tone of the court and the influence of the crown. Happily for the future of the world, the government of the United States felt itself able to accept the despatch which had been thus addressed to it, and to give the reparation which was demanded; and the danger of war between the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon race was averted. But, in the following summer, a new event excited fresh animosities, and aroused a controversy which endured for the best part of ten years.
The Confederates, naturally anxious to harass the commerce of their enemies, endeavoured from the commencement of hostilities to purchase armed cruisers from builders of neutral nations. In June 1862 the American minister in London drew Lord Russell’s attention to the fact that a vessel, lately launched at Messrs Laird’s yard at Birkenhead, was obviously intended to be employed as a Confederate cruiser. The solicitor to the commissioners of customs, however, considered that no facts had been revealed to authorize the detention of the vessel, and this opinion was reported in July to the American minister, Charles Francis Adams. He thereupon supplied the government with additional facts, and at the same time furnished them with the opinion of an eminent English lawyer, R. P. Collier (afterwards The “Alabama.” Lord Monkswell), to the effect that “it would be difficult to make out a stronger case of infringement of the Foreign Enlistment Act, which if not enforced on this occasion is little better than a dead letter.” These facts and this opinion were at once sent to the law officers. They reached the queen’s advocate on Saturday the 26th of July; but, by an unfortunate mischance, the queen’s advocate had just been wholly incapacitated by a distressing illness; and the papers, in consequence, did not reach the attorney- and solicitor-general till the evening of the following Monday, when they at once advised the government to detain the vessel. Lord Russell thereupon sent orders to Liverpool for her detention. In the meanwhile the vessel—probably aware of the necessity for haste—had put to sea, and had commenced the career which made her famous as the “Alabama.” Ministers might even then have taken steps to stop the vessel by directing her detention in any British port to which she resorted for supplies. The cabinet, however, shrank from this course. The “Alabama” was allowed to prey on Federal commerce, and undoubtedly inflicted a vast amount of injury on the trade of the United States. In the autumn of 1862 Adams demanded redress for the injuries which had thus been sustained, and this demand was repeated for many years in stronger and stronger language. At last, in 1871, long after Lord Palmerston’s death and Lord Russell’s retirement, a joint commission was appointed to examine into the many cases of dispute which had arisen between the United States and Great Britain. The commissioners agreed upon three rules by which they thought neutrals should in future be bound, and recommended that they should be given a retrospective effect. They decided also that the claims which had arisen out of the depredations of the “Alabama” should be referred to arbitration. In the course of 1872 the arbitrators met at Geneva. Their finding was adverse to Great Britain, which was condemned to pay a large sum of money—more than £3,000,000—as compensation. A period of exceptional prosperity, which largely increased the revenue, enabled a chancellor of the exchequer to boast that the country had drunk itself out of the “Alabama” difficulty.
In October 1805 Lord Palmerston’s rule, which had been characterized by six years of political inaction at home and by constant disturbance abroad, was terminated by his death. The ministry, which had suffered many losses from death during its duration, was temporarily reconstructed Lord Russell’s second ministry. under Lord Russell; and the new minister at once decided to put an end to the period of internal stagnation, which had lasted so long, by the introduction of a
