216 THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 



Britain that it engendered was, however, gen 

 eral in prevalence and malignant in expression. 

 Everywhere the thought was current: Great 

 Britain has taken advantage of our weakness 

 to browbeat and humiliate us. We will settle 

 our domestic troubles and bide our time for 

 revenge. Hamilcar s classic procedure recurred 

 to many minds; and an inspection of London 

 clubs to-day would probably reveal more than 

 one elderly American dozing the pleasant hours 

 away in happy forgetfulness of a Hannibalic 

 obligation of enmity to Albion, assumed under 

 paternal direction at the dim Christmastide of 

 1861. 



The smart of defeat was not diminished by 

 the taunts and jibes that issued in a broad, full 

 stream from the British, Canadian, and Con 

 federate press. &quot; Swagger and ferocity, built on 

 a foundation of vulgarity and cowardice, &quot; was 

 sweetly declared by the London Times to be the 

 compendium of Captain Wilkes s characteristic 

 qualities, and he was, it said, &quot;an ideal Yankee.&quot; 

 Secretary Seward was described in hardly more 

 complimentary terms, and was credited with a 

 set purpose to pick trouble with Great Britain. 

 The secretary s reputation as a reckless chau 

 vinist and an undisguised Anglophobe seems 



