. To this group belonged Gladstone,
as yet uncertain of his political philosophy, and regretful, though
vainly, it would appear, of the blow to democracy. He wrote his thought
to Brougham, no doubt hoping to influence the view-point of the
_Edinburgh_.

"This has without doubt been a deplorable year for poor
'Democracy' and never has the old woman been at a heavier
discount since 1793. I see no discredit to the founders of
the American constitution in the main fact of the rupture.
On the contrary it was a great achievement to strike off by
the will and wit of man a constitution for two millions of
men scattered along a seaboard, which has lasted until they
have become more than thirty millions and have covered a
whole continent. But the freaks, pranks, and follies, not to
say worse, with which the rupture has been met in the
Northern States, down to Mr. Chase's financial (not
exposition but) exposure have really given as I have said the
old lady in question such a heavy blow and great
discouragement that I hope you will in the first vigour of
your action be a little merciful and human lest you murder
her outright[1350]."

On this middle group of Englishmen and their moral conceptions the
American Minister, Adams, at first pinned his faith, not believing in
1861 that the issues of democracy or of trade advantage would lead Great
Britain from just rules of conduct. Even in the crisis of the _Trent_
affair he was firm in this opinion:

"Much as the commercial and manufacturing interests may be
disposed to view the tariff as the source of all our evils,
and much as the aristocratic classes may endeavour to make
democracy responsible for them, the inexorable logic of
events is contradicting each and every assertion based on
these notions, and proving that the American struggle is,
after all, the ever-recurring one in human affairs between
right and wrong, between labour and capital, between liberty
and absolutism. When such an issue comes to be presented to
the people of Great Britain, stripped of all the disguises
which have been thrown over it, it is not difficult to
predict at least which side it will _not_ consent to
take[1351].

April, 1861, saw the beginning of the aristocratic challenge on American
democracy and December its acceptance by Bright. Throughout 1862 he
pr