lions who are now seeking to plant themselves against the tremendous
force of kingly and patrician prestige. They have hitherto derived from
our example all the inspiration with which they have struggled upward.
They have been able to accomplish, step by step, important alterations
in the unwritten constitution, by the apt comparisons their leaders have
been able to make between American and British civilization. So that, in
considering the forces at work to influence those at the head of
affairs, it is necessary to consider that force which is imperceptibly,
but subtly, brought to bear upon them by the working-class. Mr. Beecher,
and other eminent Americans who have lately visited England, tell us
that this class are almost to a man sympathizers with us; and that this
sympathy has in many cases worked favorably to us cannot be doubted.
Even the operatives and manufacturers of Manchester and Leeds, at first,
a little morose because of the effect of the war on their industry, seem
to have come to a better second-thought, and are now outspoken for the
North.

The different elements of English feeling toward us may be, we think,
stated thus. The aristocracy would view with complacency the disruption
of the Union, because we are a rival power, and they are thoroughly
pledged to British aggrandizement; because the success of the Union
would belie the principle whence they derive their prerogative, and
encourage the opposing element of popular rights to greater exertions
for ascendancy; because hatred of democracy is a sentiment inherited, as
well as a principle of self-preservation; and because they have not
forgotten the former dependence of America on England. The ministry feel
toward us as the servants of a jealous power would naturally feel toward
a rival. The theorists are eager for events to crown them with the
flattery of verified prediction. The commercial classes are ill pleased
that their thrift should be curtailed; the manufacturers grumble about
the scarcity of cotton. The timid minds of some honest thinkers did not
see the real issue, until the regular developments of the war satisfied
them; the lower orders had to be told before they could comprehend that
in our destiny they must read the counterpart of their own. Those
pretentious philanthropists who have assumed to direct the anti-slavery
party in England have mostly espoused the Southern side of the quarrel;
thus demonstrating that their moral scruples have n