THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 207 



iners was plainly in sight. What to do seems 

 not to have caused any serious anxiety to the 

 cabinet. The United States had followed the 

 long-foreseen course of nature and had fallen 

 in pieces. The pieces were at war with each 

 other, and it was incumbent on the British 

 Government to assume promptly the attitude 

 and the duties of a neutral. Accordingly, on 

 May 13, the Queen s proclamation of neu 

 trality was issued. In this the proceedings in 

 the United States were referred to as hostilities 

 &quot;between the government of the United States 

 and certain states styling themselves the Con 

 federate States of America,&quot; and all subjects of 

 the Queen were notified that acts in violation 

 of neutrality would bring heavy penalties upon 

 the offender. 



Here began an Iliad of woes for the English- 

 speaking peoples. By this proclamation the 

 British Government recognized the Confederacy 

 as a belligerent, with the rights and responsi 

 bilities ascribed to a power engaged in inter 

 national war. To the North, which considered 

 the Confederates as mere riotous assemblages 

 of rebels and traitors, the attitude of the Brit 

 ish Government appeared to be a manifestation 

 of open hostility. It gave to the insurgents a 



