Eight years earlier five hundred thousand English women had united in an address to America on behalf of the slaves.  Harriet Beecher Stowe now replied to this and asked the renewed sympathy of her English sisters.  A largely signed “round robin” letter assured her that English women were still the foes of slavery and were indignantly united against suggestions of British recognition of the South[953].  Working class Britain was making its voice heard in support of the North.  To those of Manchester, Lincoln, on January 19, 1863, addressed a special letter of thanks for their earnest support while undergoing personal hardships resulting from the disruption of industry caused by the war.  “I cannot” he wrote, “but regard your decisive utterances upon the question [of human slavery] as an instance of sublime Christian heroism which has not been surpassed in any age or in any country[954].”  Nonconformist England now came vigorously to the support of the North.  Spurgeon, in London, made his great congregation pray with him:  “God bless and strengthen the North; give victory to their arms[955].”  Further and more general expression of Nonconformist church sympathy came as a result of a letter received February 12, 1863, from a number of French pastors and laymen, urging all the Evangelical churches to unite in an address to Lincoln.  The London and Manchester Emancipation Societies combined in drawing up a document for signature by pastors and this was presented for adoption at a meeting in Manchester on June 3, 1863.  In final form it was “An Address to Ministers and Pastors of All Christian Denominations throughout the States of America.”  There was a “noisy opposition” but the address was carried by a large majority and two representatives, Massie and Roylance, were selected to bear the message in person to the brethren across the ocean[956].  Discussion arose over the Biblical sanction of slavery.  In the Times appeared an editorial pleading this sanction and arguing the duty of slaves to refuse liberty[957].  Goldwin Smith, Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, replied in a pamphlet, “Does the Bible sanction American Slavery[958]?” His position and his skill in presentation made him a valuable ally to the North.

Thus British anti-slavery circles, previously on the defensive, became aroused and enthusiastic when Lincoln’s January 1, 1863, proclamation made good his pledge of the previous September:  other elements of opinion, and in all classes, were strengthened in like measure, and everywhere the first expression of fear of a servile insurrection largely disappeared.  In truth, pro-Northern England went to such lengths in its support of emancipation as to astound and alarm the Saturday Review, which called these demonstrations a “carnival of cant[959].”  More neutral minds were perplexed over the practical difficulties and might well agree with Schleiden who wrote in January, 1863, quoting Machiavelli:  “What is more