December, 1862. Possibly
its puerilities killed it and in any case it was not intended to appeal
to the public[1143]. But the launching of the Southern Independence
Association betokened the new policy of constructive effort in London to
match and guide that already started in the provinces. A long and
carefully worded constitution and address depicted the heroic struggles
of the Confederates and the "general sympathy" of England for their
cause; dwelt upon the "governmental tyranny, corruption in high places,
ruthlessness in war, untruthfulness of speech, and causeless animosity
toward Great Britain" of the North; and declared that the interests of
America and of the world would be best served by the independence of the
South. The effect of a full year's penetration in England of Lincoln's
emancipation proclamation is shown in the necessity felt by the framers
of this constitution to meet that issue. This required delicate handling
and was destined to cause some heart-burnings. The concluding section of
the constitution read:

"The Association will also devote itself to the cultivation
of kindly feelings between the people of Great Britain and of
the Confederate States; and it will, in particular, steadily
but kindly represent to the Southern States, that recognition
by Europe must necessarily lead to a revision of the system
of servile labour, unhappily bequeathed to them by England,
in accordance with the spirit of the age, so as to combine
the gradual extinction of slavery with the preservation of
property, the maintenance of the civil polity, and the true
civilization of the negro race[1144]."

The Association was unquestionably armed with distinguished guns of
heavy calibre in its Committee and officers, and its membership fee (one
guinea annually) was large enough to attract the elite, but it remained
to be seen whether all this equipment would be sent into action. As yet
the vigour of the movement was centred at Manchester and even there a
curious situation soon arose. Spence in various speeches, was declaring
that the "Petition to Parliament" movement was spreading rapidly. 30,000
at Ashton, he said, had agreed to memoralize the Government. But on
January 30, 1864, Mason Jones, a pro-Northern speaker in the Free Trade
Hall at Manchester, asked why Southern public meetings had come to
a halt. "The Southerners," he declared, "had taken the Free Trade Hall
in th