In fact the sentiment of the Cabinet as stated by Gladstone had been favourable to mediation when “both parties were ready for it” and that such readiness would come soon most Members were convinced.  This was a convenient and reasonable ground for postponing action but did not imply that if the conviction were unrealized no mediation would be attempted.  McClellan, driven out of the Peninsula, had been removed, and August saw the Northern army pressed back from Virginia soil.  It was now Washington and not Richmond that seemed in danger of capture.  Surely the North must soon realize the futility of further effort, and the reports early in July from Washington dilated upon the rapid emergence of a strong peace party.

But the first panic of dismay once past Stuart sent word of enormous new Northern levies of men and of renewed courage[728].  By mid-August, writing of cotton, he thought the prospect of obtaining any quantity of it “seems hopeless,” and at the same time reported the peace party fast losing ground in the face of the great energy of the Administration[729].  As to recognition, Stuart believed:  “There is nothing to be done in the presence of these enormous fresh levies, but to wait and see what the next two months will bring forth[730].”  The hopes of the British Ministry based on a supposed Northern weariness of the war were being shattered.  Argyll, having received from Sumner a letter describing the enthusiasm and determination of the North, wrote to Gladstone: 

“It is evident, whatever may be our opinion of the prospects of ‘the North’ that they do not yet, at least, feel any approach to such exhaustion as will lead them to admit of mediation[731]....”

To this Gladstone replied: 

“I agree that this is not a state of mind favourable to mediation; and I admit it to be a matter of great difficulty to determine when the first step ought to be taken; but I cannot subscribe to the opinion of those who think that Europe is to stand silent without limit of time and witness these horrors and absurdities, which will soon have consumed more men, and done ten times more mischief than the Crimean War; but with the difference that there the end was uncertain, here it is certain in the opinion of the whole world except one of the parties.  I should be puzzled to point out a single case of dismemberment which has been settled by the voluntary concession of the stronger party without any interference or warning from third powers, and as far as principle goes there never was a case in which warning was so proper and becoming, because of the frightful misery which this civil conflict has brought upon other countries, and because of the unanimity with which it is condemned by the civilized world[732].”

The renewal of Northern energy, first reports of which were known to Russell early in August, came as a surprise to the British Ministry.  Their progress toward