g Star_, argued long and feverishly that
Englishmen must not lose sight of the fact that slavery was an issue,
and made appeal for expressions, badly needed at the moment, of
pro-Northern sympathy[332]. To this _John Bull_ retorted:

"Nothing can be clearer than this, that black slavery has
nothing whatever to do with this Civil War in America.... The
people of America have erected a political idol. The
Northerners have talked and written and boasted so much about
their Republic that they have now become perfectly furious to
find that their idol can be overthrown, and that the false
principles upon which the American Republic is built should
be exhibited to the world, that their vaunted democracy
should be exposed as a mere bubble or a piece of rotten
timber, an abominable and worthless tyranny of the sovereign
mob[333]."

Here was an early hint of the future of democracy as at issue[334].
_John Bull_, the "country squire's paper," might venture to voice the
thought, but more important papers were still cautious in expressing it.
W.H. Russell, privately, wrote to Delane: "It is quite obvious, I think,
that the North will succeed in reducing the South[335]." But Delane
permitted no such positive prophecy to appear in the _Times_. Darwin is
good testimony of the all-prevalent British feeling: "I hope to God we
English are utterly wrong in doubting whether the North can conquer the
South." "How curious it is that you seem to think that you can conquer
the South; and I never meet a soul, even those who would most wish it,
who think it possible--that is, to conquer and retain it[336]."

In September, after the first interest in Bull Run had waned, there
appeared several books and articles on the American question which gave
opportunity for renewal of newspaper comment and controversy. A Dr.
Lempriere, "of the Inner Temple, law fellow of St. John's College,
Oxford," published a work, _The American Crisis Considered_, chiefly
declamatory, upholding the right of Southern secession, stating that no
one "who has the slightest acquaintance with the political action of
history would term the present movement rebellion." With this the
_Spectator_ begged leave to differ[337]. The _Saturday Review_
acknowledged that a prolonged war might force slavery and emancipation
to the front, but denied them as vital at present, and offered this view
as a defence against the recrimination