three years meditated secession, they were quite unprepared for war, and evidently did not expect that the North would attempt to compel them by force to return to the Union. When South Carolina seceded, there was not belonging to the country a single company of infantry or squadron of horse. There was not a piece of field artillery; the bells of the churches were taken. down and cast into cannons. There was no shot; the roofs of the houses were stripped of their lead. There was no powder; sulphur was sought in the minerals, and artificial beds were formed in thousands of cellars to produce saltpetre, each householder contributing his mite to the officers of the "Nitre Bureau." There were no medicines; the woods were scoured for medicinal herbs. There were no shoes; tanyards were constructed and trees stripped of their bark to make leather. There was no cloth; soon in the cottages throughout the country every woman had a spinningwheel at work. There were no blankets; carpets were cut up, even from around the communion altars of the churches, and sent to the soldiers. There were no ships of war; steamers were padded with cotton bales, or railroads were rifled of their iron, and the South, a country without ships or plates, sent the first armour-plated ship into action.' The principal cause of the failure of the South to assert its independence was no doubt the great superiority of the North in numbers and resources. It has been calculated that the population which, either freely or by compulsion, were on the Federal side amounted to 23,485,722; while only 7,662,235 were under the rule of the Confederacy, and of these 3,000,000 were slaves. It was this disparity of numbers which ultimately brought the conflict to a close. A great immigration from Europe into the Northern States contributed largely to recruit their armies, while no such resource was open to the South. The Federals had, besides, great advantages from their command of naval force in a country intersected by such rivers as the Mississippi, the Cumberland, the James, and the Potomac. The fleet was of invaluable service as a means of movement, and on two occasions saved an army from ruin-that of Grant at Shiloh, and that of M'Clellan on the James River. The blockade also exercised a most injurious influence on the Confederate finances, and by preventing to a great extent the importation of munitions of war, compelled the South to establish manufactures when every man was required to meet the superior numbers of the enemy in the field. Taking all these circumstances into account, the odds against which the South maintained the contest cannot be It was certainly not a desire to defend estimated at less than five to one. The slavery that aroused in the Southern States enormous expenditure of the Federal the enthusiasm which enabled the people, authorities in furnishing stores and equip- with perfect unanimity, to encounter the ments of every kind for their immense dangers and to endure the sufferings of a armies, and the great fleet they called into war protracted over four years. We have existence, created a lucrative market, and seen that the real and avowed object of the made the war a mine of hidden wealth to North was not to abolish slavery, but to large numbers of their people. But to the preserve the Union. On the other hand, inhabitants of the Southern States, with the main object of the South was to vintheir commerce entirely suspended, with dicate their State rights, not to maintain districts one after the other devastated by slavery. As Earl Russell put it, the North the enemy, and in imminent danger of was fighting for empire, the South for inactual famine, the whole history of the war dependence. No doubt many of the leaders is a record of suffering and endurance, of of the Confederacy, though not all of them, ruin to many and privation to all. were supporters of slavery. But the great Though the Cotton States had for two or majority of the Southern people had no interest whatever in the 'domestic institu- | hardly possible for the Cotton States to tion:' many of the best men of the South form an antagonistic power that could were opposed to the system. General Randolph, the first Secretary of War in the Cabinet of Jefferson Davis, was well known as an Abolitionist. There can be no doubt that if the alternative had ever been placed before the Southern people, they would willingly have abandoned slavery in order to preserve their independence. The New York Times, the organ of the Federal Government, frankly acknowledged that this Iwas the state of the case. What is the South fighting for?' it said. 'There is a prevailing opinion here in the North that it is fighting for slavery. This is erroneous. Though a passion for slavery was the immediate occasion of the war, it does not now sustain the war. The South would buy triumph to-morrow, if it could, by a complete sacrifice of slavery. It would not yield though it could take a bond of fate that by yielding it could save slavery. What Jefferson Davis told Colonel Jacques is perfectly true, that slavery had now nothing to do with the war, and that the only question was that of Southern independence. It is precisely this for which the South is fighting-exactly the converse of the national principle for which the North is fighting. We can tell the South in all sincerity that the Northern people will carry the war to any extremity rather than let the nationality be broken.' It has been contended, with great plausibility, that the war was a disastrous mistake, and that the ultimate preservation of the Union might have been attained by peaceful means. At the outset the majority of the Northern people appeared to have reconciled themselves to a peaceful separation, and leading politicians had expressed in the strongest terms their disapprobation of any attempt to compel the South by force of arms to return to the Union. Though the Cotton States had seceded, the great Border States, with Virginia at their head, refused to join them; and so long as they continued to maintain the Union, it was VOL. IV. endure. Not only the vast resources of the North, but the greatest of their own sister States, would have been against them. Secession was not altogether unknown in the history of the United States. Two of the States had some years before receded, and had remained out of the Union for quite two years; but finding their isolated condition intolerable, they re-entered the fold. It was contended that the same result would in all probability have followed in the case of the seven Cotton States, and that the Federal Government, while holding that they had no just cause for their action, and no warrant for it in the Constitution, should have allowed them to try the experiment which had been tried by North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Texas, but had not been found to answer. 'Had this course been taken, it can hardly be doubted that the Union would have been restored in much less time, without bloodshed, and with trifling cost. For at first there existed a Union party—a minority, but still an important party-in every Cotton State but one. This party would have had not only the North, but the whole influence of the Border States, to support it. Hence the Cotton States would not only have been void of the necessary resources for an independent position, but would have been a divided people. This division would have widened into dissensions, increasing day by day, for the excitement of the hour would have been followed by a reaction and by disappointment at the results. The cost of a separate Government and military force would have compelled taxation, hitherto unknown. The Federal Government, without going to war, in taking proper measures for self-protection, might easily have caused the heavy cost of an armed peace, and it had the power to place very irksome restraints on the commerce and correspondence of the country. Thus the Union party, although originally a minority, would have grown daily under such influences, 11 and probably in less than the four years | great districts and drown the inhabitants; which had been spent in hostilities would the shooting of prisoners on more than one have become a majority, and have brought occasion in cold blood; the official insultthe States back into the Union.' ing of women and clergymen; the avowed The policy of coercion was, however, attempts to destroy by famine; the burning adopted, with the most appalling results. of mills, farm-houses, and barns; the plunNo accurate account seems to have been der of private property, and the approval drawn up of the number who lost their lives bestowed on the infamous outrages of the in battle or by disease contracted by hard- Butlers, Blenkers, Milroys, and M'Neils. ships in the field, but they must have What was probably even more demoralamounted to several hundreds of thousands. izing, it fostered luxury, extravagance, and It was asserted by those best able to form wild speculation, and originated that system an accurate opinion on the subject, that at of public corruption which is now eating least one million of the slaves perished in the into the very vitals of the nation. On the course of the struggle, principally through other hand, it is only fair to bestow a due want and disease. The national debt, meed of praise on the wonderful efforts which before the war was little more than made by the North-the immense armies nominal, at its close was estimated at three they sent into the field, the great fleet they thousand millions of dollars-a sum more called into existence, the vast expenditure than sufficient to have purchased the free- they sustained, and the perseverance with dom of every slave in the South twice over. which they surmounted such defeats, deThe effect of the protracted struggle on the pression, and despondency. But the one South was deplorable in the extreme. It grand compensation for the horrors and was left impoverished, desolate, ruined-' a sufferings of a war the most deadly recorded land of anxiety for the living, and lamen- in history, is the abolition in which it issued tation for the dead.' While with regard to of the system of American slavery-the the North, to say nothing of the enormous most shocking and oppressive that ever waste of life and expenditure of money existed either in ancient or modern times. which the war entailed, it exercised a most There is no reason to believe that the North prejudicial influence on the character of would have ever consented to contribute the people, made them apathetic or indif- the money that would have been required ferent to the numerous violations of their to purchase the manumission of the slaves; Constitution, and more and more callous to and it may be doubted whether the South the destruction of human life and the inflic- would have ever consented to liberate their tion of human suffering; as was painfully slaves in peaceful times even on payment shown by the unsparing manner in which of a ransom. Both South and North were they carried on hostilities; the sinking of responsible for the maintenance of this a stone fleet to destroy Charleston harbour; accursed system, and both, in the righteous the bombarding of dwelling houses with judgment of God, were made to suffer the Greek fire; the cutting of levées to inundate | punishment due to their sin. CHAPTER V. Effect of the American War on Great Britain-Sufferings of the factory operatives in Lancashire-Measures adopted for their relief--Illness and death of the Prince Consort-His character-International Exhibition of 1862-Progress made by Continental manufacturers-Influence of technical education-State of Italy-Garibaldi's raid-He is wounded at Aspromonte-His visit to London-His enthusiastic reception-Otho, King of Greece, dethroned-Prince George of Denmark chosen as his successor-Protectorate of the Ionian Islands-Their cession to Greece-Expedition of Britain, France, and Spain to Mexico-The Mexican Empire-Designs of the French Emperor-Death of Maximilian-Insurrection in Poland — Barbarities and cruelties of the Russian Government- Conduct of Prussia -Suppression of the Insurrection-Disputes respecting the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein-Sinister designs of Prussia-Invasion of the Duchies by Prussia and Austria-Treatment of Denmark-The two Powers seize and appropriate the Duchies-Indignant protests of Britain and France-Attack in Parliament on Lord Palmerston's Government-His last victory-Death of Mr. Cobden-Dissolution of Parliament-Death of Lord Palmerston. come on. 'It is wise,' he wrote, 'when the weather is fine to put one's house in wind and water tight condition against the time when foul weather may districts are at present good; the mills are all The reports from our manufacturing working, and the people are in full employment. But we must expect a change towards the end of next autumn, and during the winter and the spring of next year. The civil war in America must infallibly diminish to a great degree our supply of cotton, unless indeed England and France should, as suggested by M. Mercier, the French Minister at Washington, compel the Northerns to let the cotton come to Europe from the South; but this would almost be tantamount to a war with the North, although not perhaps a very formidable thing for England and France combined. But even then this year's crop must be less plentiful than that of last year. Well, then, has the Board of Trade or any other department of the Government any means of procuring or of helping to procure anywhere in the wide world a subsidiary supply of cotton? As to our THE influence of the American War had been felt, not only in the belligerent States, but throughout Europe, and especially in Great Britain. The blockade of the Confederate ports had cut off in a great measure the supply of cotton, in which this country is so much interested. For some time previous to the breaking out of the war the cotton trade had been in a state of unexampled prosperity, and the vast extent to which the manufacture of cotton goods had been carried on in Lancashire and Cheshire, and the high rate of wages, had attracted great numbers of persons, especially young women, to this persons, especially young women, to this species of occupation. The terrible revulsion which now came upon trade, in consequence of the interruption to the supply of American cotton, deprived not less than 2,000,000 persons of their usual employ-manufacturers themselves, they will do nothing ment, and inflicted upon them severe sufferings. Lord Palmerston foresaw from the first the probable results of the American War on the population in our great manufacturing centres, and as early as 7th June, 1861, he brought the subject under the notice of Mr. Milner Gibson, then President of the Board of Trade, in a characteristic letter inquiring whether something could not be done to meet the probable deficiency, by drawing supplies of cotton from India and other countries where it was known to be produced in considerable quantities. unless directed and pushed on. They are some of the most helpless and shortsighted of men. They are like the people who held out their dishes, and prayed that it might rain plumpuddings. They think it is enough to open their mill gates, and cotton will come of its own accord. They say they have for years been looking to India as a source of supply; but their looks seem to have had only the first effect of the eyes of the rattlesnake, viz. to paralyze the object looked at, and as yet it has shown no signs of falling into their jaws. The western coast of Africa, the eastern coast of Africa, India, Australia, the Fiji Islands, Syria, and Egypt, all grow great quantities of cotton, not to mention China, and probably Japan. If active measures were taken years.' in time to draw from these places such quantities | felt for them by the other classes of the of cotton as might be procured, some portion at community. Strenuous efforts were made least of the probable falling off of this next year to alleviate the distress which was borne might be made good, and our demand this year would make a better supply spring up for future with such heroic endurance. The appeal made on their behalf was cordially responded to by all classes, from the cottage Some desultory efforts were made in the to the throne. Her Majesty gave £2000; direction which Lord Palmerston indicated, the Pasha of Egypt, who happened to be in but not with much effect, and the emer- London at the time, generously contributed gency was too sudden and too great to be £1000. It is noteworthy and gratifying met by measures which required years to that on the 9th of February a ship, called carry into operation. Other matters con- the George Greswold, arrived at Liverpool nected with the crisis might await the laden with provisions, the gift of Americans course of events, but in the case of the to the Lancashire relief fund, and another population habitually employed in the cot-vessel, named the Achilles, arrived on the ton manufacture, the suffering was direct 24th on the same charitable and well-timed and severe, and the need patent and mission. Large sums were raised by a urgent. So early as 1862 an enormous society presided over by the Lord Mayor increase of pauperism had taken place in of London. A considerable amount was the manufacturing districts. In Ashton sent privately by benevolent individuals the number of paupers was five times larger than it had been in 1861. At Stockport they had increased fourfold, at Manchester and Burnley threefold, and at Bury, Haslingdon, Oldham, Preston, and Rochdale they had more than doubled. Twenty-four Poor-law Unions in the distressed districts were affording outdoor relief to 140,165 persons at a weekly cost of £7922, being nearly 100,000 persons in excess of the corresponding period of the previous year. Severe as the distress was already, there was every reason to believe that it would not only continue for a considerable period, but would become heavier and heavier in its progress. There was no prospect of a speedy termination to the American War, or that when it did end cotton would immediately be obtained from the Southern States. Mr. Cobden said, on the authority of an eminent Liverpool merchant, that he expected five years to elapse before the cotton manufacture would be restored to its former prosperity. The patience, fortitude, and noble independence which the industrial classes displayed amid their privations are deserving of the highest commendation, and no doubt contributed to strengthen the sympathy to the clergymen of the suffering districts for the relief of their parishioners. Working men not connected with the cotton trade, many of whom had little to give, contributed as liberally in proportion to their means as the middle and upper classes. Even the agricultural labourers, out of their deep poverty, sent their mite to assist those whose wants were greater than their own. The nobility and gentry of Lancashire set a noble example of generosity in their efforts at this time of need to relieve the privations of their distressed neighbours. We owe it to ourselves,' wrote Lord Lindsay to the Mayor of Wigan, and to our wealthy principality to show that we are no laggards in providing for the wants of those who are now dependent upon us for relief and assistance. And when we think of the noble patience with which the operatives endure this adversity-an adversity not brought on by their own fault, but by external circumstances over which they have had no control-I think we shall consider not how little, but how much we can each of us supply towards the great and crying necessity before us.' A relief-fund committee was formed, which sat at Manchester under |