Party organization in England has a tendency to attract Chap.XVII. to itself all floating opinions on political subjects, and, by associating them with one or other of the two great parties constantly opposed in Parliament, to give them a hardness of outline and an apparent solidity they would not otherwise have, and push them a little further than they would probably advance if left to themselves. Yet, whilst it does this, it tends also to correct extravagances, since the Parliamentary action of each party is controlled by its leaders, and the leaders of each either have or hope to have the responsibilities of office and power. Had sympathy with the South been the active, dominant influence which Americans appear to suppose, the British Government would certainly have deserved high praise for steadfastly refusing to interfere on behalf of the Confederates, or even to recognize them as independent. But in truth it was so far from being dominant that any English Government which should have determined to interfere could not have retained office for a month, and any Minister who was known to have proposed it would have irretrievably ruined his own political career. Several times during the first three years of the war, attempts were made to obtain from Parliament some expression of opinion favourable to the recognition of the Confederacy; but not one of these was originated or encouraged in either House by any man of political influence, and every one of them was negatived or withdrawn without a division. The steadfast determination of the Government neither to say nor do anything which could reasonably be construed into an interference was tested in November 1862, when it was proposed by the Emperor of the French that the Courts of France, Russia, and Great Britain should tender their good offices to both belligerents, in the hope of preparing the way for an accommodation. M. Drouyn de Lhuys, in addressing himself to the British Government, dwelt on the Chap.XVII. " innumerable calamities and immense bloodshed which attended the war, and on the evils which it inflicted upon Europe. The two contending parties, he said, had up to that time fought with balanced success, and there appeared to be no probability that the strife would soon terminate. He proposed, therefore, that the three Courts should join in recommending an armistice for six months, during which means might be discovered for effecting a lasting pacification. The British Government declined to take part in such a recommendation, being satisfied that there was no reasonable prospect of its being entertained by that of the United States. "Depend upon it, my Lords," said Earl Russell, addressing the House of Peers in 1863, "that, if this war is to cease, it is far better that it should cease by a conviction both on the part of the North and on that of the South that they can never live together again happily as one community and as one Republic, and that the termination of hostilities can never be brought about by the advice, the mediation, or the interference of any European Power." It was about this time that the pressure of the blockade on British industry was most severely felt. Seldom indeed, if ever, has there been so striking an example of the hardships which war may inflict on neutrals remote from it, and innocent of all participation in it, as the distress which then existed in the cottonmanufacturing districts of England. In an earlier chapter of this book we have seen how completely the English cotton-manufacture had become dependent on the supply of raw material from America, or rather how it had been created and developed by the American supply. The average profits of the business were not high; there has been a tendency (as has been already observed) to reduce this scanty margin by outrunning the demand; and a great contraction of the manufacturer's business, involving a loss of interest on capital invested and a depreciation of plant and machinery, was Chap.XVII. likely to exhaust it rapidly, and sweep away the fund available for the maintenance of the workman. To the labourer, therefore, as well as to the millowner, cheap cotton was a necessary of life; the cessation of the supply was starvation to the one, and, if long-continued, was ruin to the other. Cotton of average quality,1 which cost 7d. a pound at Liverpool in December 1858, and a fraction less than 1s. in December 1861, sold in December 1862 for 24 d., and for 273d. during the corresponding month of 1863. The effect of this was to throw out of work a vast and industrious population accustomed to good wages, and to make them dependent for a bare subsistence on the local rates and on public charity. In December 1862 half a million of persons, condemned to enforced and miserable idleness, were receiving relief from these sources-relief necessarily scanty, painful to the recipients, and insufficient to save them from many severe hardships and privations. This state of things continued during the year 1863, though the number of the unemployed gradually diminished. Many left the district in search of other ways of gaining a livelihood; many emigrated; many others found employment on public works, for which a loan was granted out of the national exchequer. The total amount expended, within the knowledge of the superintending Relief Committee, up to April 1863, was 1,853,3197. Contributions flowed in abundantly from all parts of the British empire and more than one shipload of provisions sent from the United States bore witness to the sympathy there felt for this great and unmerited calamity, which was borne by the sufferers, for the most part, with singular fortitude and uncomplaining patience. As the war continued, supplies of cotton, inadequate in quantity, and at greatly enhanced prices, began to be drawn from other parts of the 1 Middling Orleans. Chap.XVII. world-from Turkey, Egypt, and above all from India. The export of Indian cotton was trebled, and its value increased fourfold; and the Bombay peasant became a gainer by the disaster which had ruined the American planter, and impoverished the English manufacturer and artisan. The wants of his narrow existence could not at first expand with his new wealth: it has been lately stated on authority that ploughshares and the tires of cart-wheels made of solid silver might at that time have been seen in an Indian village. But the use of money is soon learnt by a naturally thrifty race; and with the money that flowed to the East in payment for raw cotton, trees were planted, wells dug, fields irrigated, and brick cottages built instead of wretched hovels, and these marks of improvement yet remain. It may be added that, heavy as was the loss occasioned by the depression of this important branch of industry, it appears to have affected but little the general prosperity of Great Britain. The immovable firmness of the British Government was a bitter disappointment to the people of the revolted States. They wished to be recognized as independent in order that they might become so; and, in proportion as it became more clear that their independence was not actually achieved, and more doubtful whether it would ever be secured at all, they the more keenly resented the refusal. They had reckoned at first with confidence on being able to command, in case of need, the countenance and support of England, merely as growers of cotton; they had afterwards tried to 1 "Without firing a gun, without drawing a sword, should they make war on us, we could bring the whole world to our feet. What would happen if no cotton was furnished for three years? I will not stop to depict what every one can imagine, but this is certain, England would topple headlong, and carry the whole civilized world with her. No, you dare not make war on cotton. No Power on the earth dares to make war upon it-Cotton is king."-Speech of Mr. J. H. Hammond, in the Senate, 4th March, 1858. tempt her by expatiating on the profits to be reaped by Chap.XVII. opening the blockade. They had hoped to gain her by means of her material interests; and, when she proved unyielding, they inveighed against her as selfish, calculating, and inhuman. They affirmed that her neutrality was not sincere, but warped in favour of the North. They even contrasted the treatment received by Mr. Mason in London, and the coldness and brevity of Lord Russell's replies to his representations, with the greater courtesy extended to Mr. Slidell at Paris. Mr. Mason remained here as the authorized agent of the Confederate Government until September 1863, with the vague hope that some unforeseen turn of events might yet shake the resolution and reverse the policy of Great Britain. At the end of two years this hope finally gave way, and he announced to Lord Russell the termination of his mission : "My Lord, Mr. Mason to Earl Russell. "24, Upper Seymour Street, Portman Square, "In a despatch from the Secretary of State of the Confederate States of America, dated the 4th of August last, and now just received, I am instructed to consider the commission which brought me to England as at an end, and I am directed to withdraw at once from the country. "The reasons for terminating this mission are set forth in an extract from the despatch which I have the honour to communicate herewith. The President believes that 'the Government of Her Majesty has determined to decline the overtures made through you for establishing by Treaty friendly relations between the two Governments, and entertains no intention of receiving you as the accredited Minister of this Government near the British Court. 1 "It is to be observed that, during the whole continuance of the war up to this time, the British Government had acted with reference to it in a spirit of selfish and inhuman calculation; and there is indeed but little doubt that an early recognition of the Confederacy by France was thwarted by the interference of that cold and sinister Government, that ever pursues its ends by indirection and perfects its hypocrisy under the specious cloak of extreme conscientiousness."-Pollard's First Year of the War, p. 347. |