e jumped out of our boots at such a one[444]."

The British Cabinet members were divided in sentiments of hope or
pessimism as to the outcome, and were increasingly anxious for an
honourable escape from a possible situation in which, if they trusted
the observations of Lyons, they might find themselves aiding a slave as
against a free State. On November 29, Lyons had written a long account
of the changes taking place in Northern feeling as regards slavery. He
thought it very probable that the issue of emancipation would soon be
forced upon Lincoln, and that the American conflict would then take on a
new and more ideal character[445]. This letter, arriving in the midst of
uncertainty about the _Trent_ solution, was in line with news published
in the British papers calling out editorials from them largely in
disapproval[446]. Certainly Russell was averse to war. If the prisoners
were not given up, what, he asked, ought England then to do? Would it be
wise to delay hostilities or to begin them at once?

"An early resort to hostilities will enable us at once to raise the
blockade of the South, to blockade the North, and to prevent the egress
of numerous ships, commissioned as privateers which will be sent against
our commerce." But then, there was Canada, at present not defensible. He
had been reading Alison on the War of 1812, and found that then the
American army of invasion had numbered but 2,500 men. "We may now expect
40 or 50,000[447]." Two days later he wrote to Gladstone that if America
would only "let the Commissioners free to go where they pleased," he
would be satisfied. He added that in that case, "I should be very glad
to make a treaty with the U.S., giving up our pretensions of 1812 and
securing immunity to persons not in arms on board neutral vessels or to
persons going bona fide from one neutral port to another. This would be
a triumph to the U.S. in principle while the particular case would be
decided in our favour[448]."

On Saturday, December 14, the Prince Consort died. It was well-known
that he had long been a brake upon the wheel of Palmerston's foreign
policy and, to the initiated, his last effort in this direction--the
modification of the instruction to Lyons on the _Trent_--was no secret.
There is no evidence that his death made any change in the British
position, but it was true, as the American Minister wrote, that "Now
they [the British public] are beginning to open their eyes to a sense of
his