uld use their influence, together with France
and other European powers, to bring both belligerents
together in order to put a stop to the vast destruction of
life and property that is now going on in that unhappy
country[1246]."

No doubt this spectacular meeting was organized for effect, but in truth
it must have overshot the mark, for by October, 1864, the distress in
Lancashire was largely alleviated and the public knew it, while
elsewhere in the cotton districts the mass of operative feeling was with
the North. Even in Ireland petitions were being circulated for signature
among the working men, appealing to Irishmen in America to stand by the
administration of Lincoln and to enlist in the Northern armies on the
ground of emancipation[1247]. Here, indeed, was the insuperable barrier,
in the fall of 1864, to public support of the South. Deny as he might
the presence of the "foul blot" in Southern society, Hotze, of _The
Index_, could not counteract that phrase. When the Confederate Congress
at Richmond began, in the autumn of 1864, seriously to discuss a plan
of transforming slaves into soldiers, putting guns in their hands, and
thus replenishing the waning man-power of Southern armies, Hotze was
hard put to it to explain to his English readers that this was in fact
no evidence of lowered strength, but rather a noble determination on the
part of the South to permit the negro to win his freedom by bearing arms
in defence of his country[1248].

This was far-fetched for a journal that had long insisted upon the
absolute incapacity of the black race. Proximity of dates, however,
permits another interpretation of Hotze's editorial of November 10, and
indeed of the project of arming the slaves, though this, early in the
spring of 1865, was actually provided for by law. On November 11,
Slidell, Mason and Mann addressed to the Powers of Europe a
communication accompanying a Confederate "Manifesto," of which the
blockade had long delayed transmissal. This "Manifesto" set forth the
objects of the Southern States and flatly demanded recognition:

"'All they ask is immunity from interference with their
internal peace and prosperity and to be left in the
undisturbed enjoyment of their inalienable rights of life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness which their common
ancestry declared to be the equal heritage of all parties to
the Social compact[1249].'"

Russell replied, Nov