equence. The Liberals were losing
strength, wrote Adams:

"That the American difficulties have materially contributed
to this result cannot be doubted. The fact that many of the
leading Liberals are the declared friends of the United
States is a decided disadvantage in the contest now going on.
The predominating passion here is the desire for the ultimate
subdivision of America into many separate States which will
neutralize each other. This is most visible among the
conservative class of the Aristocracy who dread the growth of
liberal opinions and who habitually regard America as the
nursery of them[1354]."

From all this controversy Government leaders kept carefully aloof at
least in public expression of opinion. Privately, Russell commented to
Palmerston, "I have been reading a book on Jefferson by De Witt, which
is both interesting and instructive. It shows how the Great Republic of
Washington degenerated into the Democracy of Jefferson. They are now
reaping the fruit[1355]." Was it mere coincidence or was there
significance in an editorial in Palmerston's alleged "organ," the
_Morning Post_:

"That any Englishman has looked forward with pleasure to the
calamities of America is notoriously and demonstrably false.
But we have no hesitation in admitting that many thoughtful
Englishmen who have watched, in the policy of the United
States during the last twenty years, the foreshadowing of a
democratic tyranny compared with which the most corrupt
despotisms of the Old World appear realms of idyllic
happiness and peace, have gratefully recognized the finger of
Providence in the strife by which they have been so
frightfully rent asunder[1356]...."

In October the heavy artillery of the Conservatives was again brought
into action and this time with more explicit diagnosis than heretofore.
"For a great number of years," said the _Quarterly_, "a certain party
among us, great admirers of America ... have chosen to fight their
English battles upon American soil." Now the American Government "has
disgracefully and ignominiously failed" at all points. It is evident
that "political equality is not merely a folly, it is a chimera[1357]."
At last, in November, the _Times_ openly took the position which its
accusers declared to have been the basis of its editorial utterances
almost from the beginning of the Civil War.

"Th