xxxvi INTRODUCTION 



icans did not then know it, that the bulk of the 

 British people, and most of its intellectual 

 leaders, men like John Bright and Goldwin 

 Smith, always stood for the cause which they 

 held to be that of human rights and of demo 

 cratic progress. During the years from 1861 

 to 1865 no meetings open to the general public 

 were (so far as I can remember) ever held to 

 give support to the Confederate cause, because 

 it was known that in such an open meeting no 

 resolution adverse to the North could have been 

 carried on a vote. In the upper classes there 

 were then some people who would have liked 

 to see a republic discredited. But the larger 

 heart of the British nation as a whole refused 

 the most favorable opportunity it ever had of 

 injuring its greatest competitor. 



Though Professor Dunning is right in dwell 

 ing upon the fact that the gradual democra 

 tization of Britain tended to the promotion of 

 good relations, it is to be noted that in neither 

 country was either of the great parties identified 

 with either an anti-American or an anti-British 

 tendency. Party politics came but little into 

 the matter. But men, that is to say, the views 

 and characters of individual statesmen, did 

 come in, and made an immense difference. 



