CH. XXII.] GROTE AND CARLYLE 361 in their criticisms use courteous and refined language.1 Carlyle, who had received the first money for his "French Revolution" from Boston, when "not a penny had been realized in England," and who had thankfulness of heart for what it implied, as well as for the needful money, had now no fellow-feeling with the North. "No war ever raging in my time," he said, "was to me more profoundly foolish looking. Neutral I am to a degree: I for one." Again, he spoke of it as "a smoky chimney which had taken fire;" and when asked to publish something in regard to the conflict, he wrote his Ilias Americana in nuce. "Peter of the North (to Paul of the South): Paul, you unaccountable scoundrel, I find you hire your servants for life, not by the month or year, as I do. You are going straight to hell, you Paul: Good words, Peter. The risk is my own. I am willing to take the risk. Hire you your servants by the month or the day, and get straight to heaven; leave me to my own method. Peter: No, I won't. I will beat your brains out first! (And is trying dreadfully ever since, but cannot yet manage it.)" 2 1 Grote wrote to Sir G. C. Lewis, Dec. 29, 1862: "I quite agree in the remarks contained in your last note about the unreasonable and insane language of the Americans against England. The perfect neutrality of England in this destructive war appears to me almost a phenomenon in political history. No such forbearance has been shown during the political history of the last two centuries. . . . And the way in which the Northern Americans have requited such forbearance is alike silly and disgusting. I never expected to have lived to think of them so unfavorably as I do at present. Amidst their very difficult present circumstances they have manifested little or nothing of those qualities which inspire sympathy and esteem and very much of all the contrary qualities; and among the worst of their manifestations is their appetite for throwing the blame of their misfortunes on guiltless England." - Life of Grote by Mrs. Grote, p. 262. I have expressed in the text probably the average Northern opinion of this letter; for a fair statement of the Southern view of Grote's position, see article of Gildersleeve in the Atlantic Monthly, Jan. 1892, p. 79. 2 While this was not published in Macmillan's Magazine until Aug., 1863, it is dated May, and it is proper to refer the thought to this period. See the Magazine; Froude's Carlyle, vol. iv. p. 209, also, vol. iii. p. 131. Much the same notion as that in the text was expressed by Carlyle, Juiy Dickens, who had sent cheer and humor and pathos into every household from the Atlantic to the Missouri River, who was loved in the free States as few writers have been loved, who, one might have thought from his vehement denunciation of slavery in the "American Notes,"1 would, now that the battle was joined, see that the right would prevail, treated the opinion of a friend, who returned from America in the spring of 1863 and said that the North would ultimately triumph, as a “harmless hallucination."2 Indirectly and undesignedly he was himself a contributing cause to the view which the English higher classes took of the North, for his caricatures in "Martin Chuzzlewit" came to be regarded as a true portrayal of the character of the men and women who were now risking all for unity and freedom. But Tennyson, the poet of the people, though filled with conventional horror at the war, was inspired by the hope of the abolition of slavery, and used to sing, with enthusiasm, 3 "Glory, glory, hallelujah, His soul goes marching on." 4 All interested in the attitude of Great Britain towards American affairs awaited, anxiously, the opening of Parliament. The terrible defeat which Burnside had met at Fredericksburg, and the cabinet crisis which followed, together with the Democratic success in the fall elections, seemed to presage the breaking-up of the war party of the North, and affected profoundly the public opinion which moved the House of Commons. Mason wrote Benjamin, January 15: 30, 1862, Notes from a Diary, Grant Duff, vol. i. p. 204. See an article and a parody by F. D. M., Spectator, Aug. 8. 1 Chapter xvii. and passim. 2 Cornhill Magazine, April, 1892, p. 368. 3 “The American part of ‘Martin Chuzzlewit' is, we think, one of the very cleverest things ever written in fiction. There are not many pages in it, but Mr. Dickens has so thoroughly caught the spirit and reproduced the character of the people he set himself to describe, that almost everything said or done in public by Americans is virtually contained in ‘Martin Chuzzlewit.'"-Saturday Review, Oct. 25, 1862. 4 Memoir of Tennyson, vol. i. p. 490. CH. XXII.] ADAMS'S ANXIETY 363 "Though I doubt not a word from the Minister suggesting that the time had arrived for recognition would meet with unanimous response in the affirmative, both from the ministerial and opposition benches in the House of Commons, I do not think Lord Palmerston is disposed to speak that word.”1 Nevertheless, Adams had reason for anxiety, for, in spite of the rising tide of anti-slavery sentiment, military affairs looked so gloomy for the North that even Forster "seemed inclined to give way to a proposal of recognition of the rebels if brought up. in Parliament."2 Parliament assembled February 5. In the Queen's speech reference was made to a condition operating to the advantage of the North: the distress in Lancashire was diminishing. Throughout the autumn it had been great; but towards the end of the year 3 1 Confed. Dip. Corr., MS. Mason added: "Nor will the Tories make an issue with him on American affairs. The fact is that parties are so nearly balanced in the House, and, as it would seem, in the country, that the latter are very coy in measuring strength with their opponents." 2 Adams's Diary, entry Jan. 21. Two days later Forster modified his opinion. 8 Adams wrote Seward: Sept. 12, 1862, "There are announcements of increasing distress among the operatives as the growing scarcity of cotton has the effect of closing more of the mills;" Sept. 25, "The distress in the manufacturing districts is rather on the increase, and the demand for cotton more imperative; " Oct. 3, "The distress in the manufacturing region rather increases in severity; but I am inclined to believe that the further closing of the mills is no longer made imperative by the diminution of the material. Large supplies of cotton of the old crop were received from India last week, and 300,000 bales are announced as far on their way. The new crop will soon follow;" Dec. 4, "It is more than likely that the distress from this time will become less and less burdensome. Such engagements have been entered into for the prospective supply of cotton from other sources than the United States, that the probability of a sudden reopening of our ports is beginning to be viewed with quite as much apprehension as desire. . . Thus far it is notorious here that all the markets of the world to which the English have access had been, prior to the troubles, so much glutted with their cotton goods as, in spite of the subsequent cessation of manufacture, not yet to have recovered their equilibrium." - Dip. Corr. Bright wrote Sumner, Dec. 6, 1862: "This country is passing through a wonderful crisis, but our people will be kept alive by the contributions of the country. I see that some one in the States has proposed to send something to our aid. If a few cargoes of flour could come, say 50,000 barrels, as a gift from persons war. an improvement began, and by the first of January, 1863, the crisis in the cotton trade had been passed.1 Egypt, Syria, and Brazil were sending cotton,2 and at the same time it began to be understood that the suffering was not due solely to the cutting off of the raw material by the American The glut of cotton goods in the great markets of China and India indicated that without any other disturbing element the manufacturers of Manchester would have been forced to curtail operations from an inability to dispose of their product. Nevertheless, the generous people in the eastern part of the United States were touched by the tale of distress that came across the water, and sent, in the early part of January, from New York City, a ship loaded with flour, bread, and meat to the suffering workmen of Lancashire.1 The debate on the Queen's speech was favorable to the North. "The most marked indication respecting American affairs," wrote Adams, in his diary, "was the course of Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli, which decidedly discouraged movement. On their minds the effect of the President's Proclamation on public sentiment here had not been lost."5 in your Northern States to the Lancashire workingmen, it would have a prodigious effect in your favor here. Our working class is with you, and against the South; but such a token of your good-will would cover with confusion all those who talk against you."- Pierce-Sumner Papers, MS. Bright said in his speech of Dec. 18: "Nearly 500,000 persons-men, women, and children at this moment are saved from the utmost extremes of famine, not a few of them from death, by the contributions which they are receiving from all parts of the country." The Times said, Jan. 8: "The number of persons dependent more or less on the support, compulsory or voluntary, of the public was not much less than a million." 1 Spectator and Saturday Review, Jan. 3. 2 John Bright's Speeches, vol. i. p. 209. 8 See Earl of Derby's Speech in the House of Lords, Feb. 5. 4 N. Y. Times, Jan. 10; Dip. Corr., 1863, part i. p. 18. The cotton operatives held meetings, and sent a formal expression of their thanks to the New York City merchants, and to the people of the United States generally. - Daily News, Jan. 30, Feb. 4. John Bright, Speeches, vol. i. p. 227; see, also, Dip. Corr., 1863, part i. p. 103. 5 Entry, Feb. 6. For these Speeches, see Hansard, 23, 82. Mason wrote Benjamin, Feb. 9: "Whilst both the ministry and the opposition agree CH. XXII.] THE ALABAMA 365 Towards the end of March the situation between the two countries again looked grave. Owing to the depredations of the Alabama, which had been built at Liverpool and was almost sweeping our flag from the seas, the irritation in the United States against Great Britain was constantly on the increase. Adams persistently urged upon the English government, in a correspondence marked by some acerbity between him and Earl Russell, its responsibility for the destruction caused by this cruiser, when Russell at last wrote: "Her Majesty's Government entirely disclaim all responsibility for any acts of the Alabama." The Alabama was manned by British seamen, showed frequently the English flag, and received a hearty welcome in all ports of the English colonies; on one occasion she was greeted by enthusiastic demonstrations from an English ship bound from Australia to England, the men cheering and the ladies waving their handkerchiefs. This incident, by the time it reached the United States and was told and retold, became the story of the passengers of a British packet making the "sea resound with cheers" as they witnessed the burning of two American ships which had been captured by the Alabama.2 She was a swift screw steamer, with full sail power, and had an able Southern commander, who by his watchfulness aided by a certain degree of good fortune, eluded all the attempts made by the United States Naval Department to catch her and destroy her. During her career she burned fifty-seven vessels that the separation of the States is final, yet both equally agree that in their judgment the time has not yet arrived for recognition. Both parties are guided in this by a fixed English purpose to run no risk of a broil, even far less of a war with the United States. . . . The ground taken by Lord Derby that recognition without other form of intervention would have no fruits, is constantly assumed here by those who are against any movement; and with those willingly deaf it is vain to argue.". Confed. Dip. Corr., MS. 1 March 9, Dip. Corr., 1863, part i. p. 145. ... 2 Sinclair, Two Years on the Alabama, pp. 16, 29, 73; Cruise of the Alabama, Semmes, vol. i. p. 298, vol. ii. pp. 60, 79. I have assumed that the incident related by Semmes is the same as that described by Sumner in his speech of Sept. 10, 1863, Sumner's Works, vol. vii. p. 354. |