ll he was to speak at their expense,
but under no circumstances to either preach or lecture until he had
recovered his strength. He was ill during the entire voyage, and was
not able to appear on deck until the vessel entered the Mersey. The news
of Beecher's coming had preceded him, and on opening the papers he found
even church leaders antagonistic. They deplored his coming, lest he
increase the excitement. The nobility was in favour of the South, as
were the ship-builders, the mill-owners, the bankers and all who had
investments or loans in the cotton industry of England and of the South.

One hundred and fifty Congregational ministers greeted Beecher with a
breakfast in London. They asked him to preach and speak on religious
topics, but to avoid all reference to slavery on account of the inflamed
condition of the English mind. The man who introduced him deplored the
war, and described the patience of God in permitting the North to go on.
When Beecher arose to speak he was in a towering rage. He told them that
he would neither preach nor lecture nor speak in a mother land that was
openly hostile to her own daughter, and unfriendly to every principle of
liberty that was dear to England and embedded in English tradition and
history.

In substance, he said: "Your conscience here in England is very
sensitive on the subject of war, providing some one else is fighting the
war, but England has no conscience at all as to war when she is
prosecuting the campaign." At that very hour England was fighting a war
in Japan, and a war in China, and a war in New Zealand for territory.
Three wars being quite proper, if England fought them, but oh, the
patience of God in permitting the North to exist even for one moment,
while fighting for liberty, the Union and the emancipation of slaves! He
told them that they thought it was a crime for the North to have a war
for emancipation, but quite proper for England to threaten a war over
two men named Mason and Slidell! Beecher understood Old England. No
nation in history ever conducted so many wars. No other nation's
statesmen ever had such skill to invent moral excuses for seizing
territory, in Africa, Egypt, India, Thibet, Australia, New Zealand and
all the islands of the sea. He best described it in his final speech in
London, when returned from the Continent: "On what shore has not the
prow of your ships dashed? What land is there with a name and a people
where your banner has not led y