on to preserve the Union. It lay at the
bottom of his increasing bitterness toward his old friend Charles
Francis Adams, now busy in schemes intended, apparently, to restore the
Union by compromise, and it led Sumner to hope for appointment as
Minister to England[76].

The chief organ of British upper-class opinion, the _Times_, was one of
the first to begin the process of "face about," as civil war in America
seemed imminent[77]. Viewed from the later attitude of the _Times_, the
earlier expressions of that paper, and in truth of many British
journals, seem merely the customary platitudinous British holding up of
horrified hands at American slavery. On January 19, 1861, a strong
editorial still proclaimed the folly of South Carolina, as acting
"without law, without justice," but displayed a real dismay at the
possible consequences of war to British trade and commerce. On January
22, the _Times_ reprinted an article from the _Economist_, on a probable
cessation of cotton supply and editorially professed great alarm, even
advocating an early recognition of the Southern confederacy if needed to
maintain that supply. From this time on there is no further note in the
_Times_ of the righteousness of the Northern cause; but while it is
still asserted that war would be folly, the strength of the South, its
superiority as a military nation, are depicted.

A long break of nearly six weeks follows with little editorial comment.
Soon the correspondence from New York, previously written by Bancroft
Davis, and extremely favourable to the Northern cause, was discontinued.
W.H. Russell, the famous war correspondent of the Crimea, was summoned
to London and, according to his own story, upon being given papers,
clippings, and correspondence (largely articles from the _New York
Herald_) supporting the right of the South to secede, hastily took his
departure for America to report upon the situation[78]. He sailed from
Queenstown on March 3, and arrived in New York on March 16. At last on
March 12, the _Times_ took positive ground in favour of the justice of
the Southern cause.

"No treachery has been at work to produce the disruption, and
the principles avowed are such as to command the sympathies
of every free and enlightened people. Such are the widely
different auspices under which the two rival Republics start
into existence. But mankind will not ultimately judge these
things by sympathies and antipath