the
Northern effort was doomed to failure, even though Russell was himself
guarded in opinion as to ultimate result. "'What will England and France
think of it?' is the question which is asked over and over again," wrote
Russell on July 24[325], expatiating on American anxiety and chagrin in
the face of probable foreign opinion. On August 22 he recorded in his
diary the beginnings of the American newspaper storm of personal attack
because of his description of the battle in the _Times_--an attack which
before long became the alleged cause of his recall by Delane[326]. In
fact Russell's letters added nothing in humiliating description to the
outpourings of the Northern press, itself greedily quoted by
pro-Southern foreign papers. The impression of Northern military
incapacity was not confined to Great Britain--it was general throughout
Europe, and for the remainder of 1861 there were few who ventured to
assert a Northern success in the war[327].

Official Britain, however, saw no cause for any change in the policy of
strict neutrality. Palmerston commented privately, "The truth is, the
North are fighting for an Idea chiefly entertained by professional
politicians, while the South are fighting for what they consider rightly
or wrongly vital interests," thus explaining to his own satisfaction why
a Northern army of brave men had _chosen_ to _run_ away[328], but the
Government was careful to refrain from any official utterances likely to
irritate the North. The battle served, in some degree, to bring into the
open the metropolitan British papers which hitherto professing
neutrality and careful not to reveal too openly their leanings, now each
took a definite stand and became an advocate of a cause. The Duke of
Argyll might write reassuringly to Mrs. Motley to have no fear of
British interference[329], and to Gladstone (evidently controverting the
latter's opinion) that slavery was and would continue to be an object in
the war[330], but the press, certainly, was not united either as to
future British policy or on basic causes and objects of the war. The
_Economist_ believed that a second Southern victory like Bull Run, if
coming soon, would "so disgust and dishearten the shouters for the Union
that the contest will be abandoned on the instant.... Some day, with
scarcely any notice, we may receive tidings that an armistice has been
agreed upon and preliminaries of peace have been signed[331]." John
Bright's paper, the _Mornin