194 Reminiscences of 



in an additional conflict with the most important 

 European nations. Palmerston, then Minister of 

 the Exchequer, was well known as friendly to the 

 South, and even Gladstone publicly expressed himself 

 as believing that the Disunionists would prevail. 

 Roebuck and Laird and many others in the English 

 Parliament were savagely opposed to a continuance 

 of the American Union, and we owe much, if not 

 immeasurably, to our American Minister, Charles 

 Francis Adams, for his courageous and manly de- 

 fence of the Union, and his defiant challenge to war 

 with the English nation, without delay, upon its 

 recognition of the South. To John Bright more than 

 to another in the English Parliament in his vigorous 

 defence of the Union, and largely, undoubtedl}', to 

 the heart-felt influence of the British Queen, do we 

 owe much for the preservation of our now glorious 

 Union. 



It is a question yet to be answered if Napoleon had 

 not made an understanding with the leaders of the 

 Southern Confederacy for aid in establishing a Latin 

 Monarchy in Mexico, in case of the recognition and 

 success of the South. He, however, did not dare 

 alone to brave the contest, or to involve France in a 

 war which could not be responded to by its people, 

 already imbued by a republican spirit. Nor could 

 England involve herself when the support of her people 

 would not be given for a war in which their sympa- 

 thies could not be enlisted, despite the antagonism of 

 the autocratic classes — who to a unit viewed with 

 jealousy the growing importance of America, — now 

 happily averted by an overwhelming power, which 

 cannot be diverted. 



