It
Was The First I Had Ever Heard Of Wheaton, And So Far Was Obliged
To Knock Under.
All the world, ladies and lawyers, expressed the
utmost confidence in the justice of the seizure; but it was clear
that all the world was in a state of the profoundest nervous
anxiety on the subject.
To me it seemed to be the most suicidal
act that any party in a life-and-death struggle ever committed.
All Americans on both sides had felt, from the beginning of the
war, that any assistance given by England to one or the other would
turn the scale. The government of Mr. Lincoln must have learned by
this time that England was at least true in her neutrality; that no
desire for cotton would compel her to give aid to the South as long
as she herself was not ill treated by the North. But it seemed as
though Mr. Seward, the President's Prime Minister, had no better
work on hand than that of showing in every way his indifference as
to courtesy with England. Insults offered to England would, he
seemed to think, strengthen his hands. He would let England know
that he did not care for her. When our minister, Lord Lyons,
appealed to him regarding the suspension of the habeas corpus, Mr.
Seward not only answered him with insolence, but instantly
published his answer in the papers. He instituted a system of
passports, especially constructed so as to incommode Englishmen
proceeding from the States across the Atlantic.
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