But it is important for England to know all the phases of the debate in which she has entered.  It has a European phase.  This is not a discussion between two powers; a third, the first of all, public opinion, must also have its say.  It wishes peace, and will not let it be sacrificed for an error easily repaired and voluntarily exaggerated.  Public opinion strongly repudiates the cause of the South, which is that of slavery; (the speeches of Mr. Stephens, Vice-President of the Southern Confederacy, give proof of this.) At the announcement of the heinous fact that England recognizes the Confederacy expressly founded to maintain, glorify, and extend slavery, public opinion, believe me, would give vent to an outburst of wrath which would cast the indignation meetings of Liverpool wholly in the shade.

England has maintained her neutrality in the New World for the year past, and she deserves well for this, for angry instincts dictated to her another policy.  However, if she has been neutral, she has not been sympathizing.  This vast social revolution, which, began with the election of Mr. Lincoln, which had inscribed on its banner, “No extension of slavery,” and which thus entered in the way leading one day to emancipation; this generous revolution which deserved to be encouraged, has met with little in England but distrust and hostility.  Upon other points, while preserving her neutrality, England knows very well how to give her moral support to causes which she loves—­the support of journals, of parliamentary speeches, and of public meetings.  Here, there is nothing of the sort.  I know not what fatal misunderstanding has kept down the generous sentiments which should have made themselves felt.  From the beginning, the principal English journals, especially those reputed to express the views of Lord Palmerston, have not ceased to proclaim openly that the South was right in seceding, that the separation was without remedy, that it was just and in conformity with the wishes of England.  Again and again has the recognition of the South been presented as an act to be expected and for which we must be prepared.

From all this, if care be not taken, the inference will be drawn that, in the excessive eagerness with which the affair of the Trent has been seized upon, in the peremptory terms of the demand for redress, in the form adopted in order to render the reparation difficult, may be seen the intention of reaching the end which England proposes; of effecting the recognition, breaking the blockade, obtaining cotton, and substituting a parcelled-out America for the too powerful Republic of the United States.

Liverpool has, this time, given the signal, Lancashire urges on the rupture; behind the national honor, there may be something else.  Take care! if this must not be thought, it must not be true.

And it will be true if you declare the question closed at the very moment when it begins to attract public attention; if you exact a reparation without admitting an explanation; if, in short, you reject in advance all idea of negotiation, mediation, or arbitration.