o the common
sense of the North to refrain from a civil war whose professed object
was unattainable. "Everyone knows and admits that the secession is an
accomplished, irrevocable, fact.... Even if the North were sure of an
easy and complete victory--short, of course, of actual subjugation of
the South (which no one dreams of)--the war which was to end in such a
victory would still be, in the eyes of prudence and worldly wisdom, an
objectless and unprofitable folly[319]." But by the middle of June the
American irritation at the British Proclamation of Neutrality, loudly
and angrily voiced by the Northern press, had caused a British press
resentment at this "wilful misrepresentation and misjudgment" of British
attitude. "We _do_ believe the secession of the Slave States to be a
_fait accompli_--a completed and irreversible transaction. We believe it
to be impossible now for the North to lure back the South into the Union
by any compromise, or to compel them back by any force." "If this is an
offence it cannot be helped[320]."

The majority of the London papers, though not all, passed through the
same shifts of opinion and expression as the _Economist_; first
upbraiding the South, next appealing to the North not to wage a useless
war, finally committing themselves to the theory of an accomplished
break-up of the Union and berating the North for continuing, through
pride alone, a bloody conflict doomed to failure. Meanwhile in midsummer
attention was diverted from the ethical causes at issue by the
publication in the _Times_ of Motley's letter analysing the nature of
the American constitution and defending the legal position of the North
in its resistance to secession. Motley wrote in protest against the
general British press attitude: "There is, perhaps, a readiness in
England to prejudge the case; a disposition not to exult in our
downfall, but to accept the fact[321]...."

He argued the right and the duty of the North to force the South into
subjection. "The right of revolution is indisputable. It is written on
the record of our race. British and American history is made up of
rebellion and revolution.... There can be nothing plainer, then, than
the American right of revolution. But, then, it should be called
revolution." "It is strange that Englishmen should find difficulty in
understanding that the United States Government is a nation among the
nations of the earth; a constituted authority, which may be overthrown
by