he risks and dangers of the
deep[461]." Englishmen must not think that a war would be fought only on
the shores of America and in Canada. The legal question was re-hashed
and intelligent American vexation re-stated in three letters printed in
the _Daily News_ on December 25, 26 and 27, by W. W. Story, an artist
resident in Rome, but known in England as the son of Justice Story,
whose fame as a jurist stood high in Great Britain[462]. By the last
week of the year Adams felt that the Ministry, at least, was eager to
find a way out: "The Government here will not press the thing to an
extreme unless they are driven to it by the impetus of the wave they
have themselves created[463]." He greatly regretted the death of the
Prince Consort who "believed in the policy of conciliating the United
States instead of repelling them." On December 27, Adams wrote Seward:
"I think the signs are clear of a considerable degree of reaction." He
also explained the causes of the nearly unanimous European support of
England in this contention: "Unquestionably the view of all other
countries is that the opportunity is most fortunate for obtaining new
and large modifications of international law which will hereafter
materially restrain the proverbial tendency of this country on the
ocean[464]."

Adams' estimate was correct. Even the _Morning Post_, generally accepted
as Palmerston's organ[465], and in the _Trent_ crisis the most
'vigorous' of all metropolitan journals, commented upon the general
public hope of a peaceful solution, but asked on December 30, "... can a
Government [the American] elected but a few months since by the popular
choice, depending exclusively for existence on popular support, afford
to disappoint the popular expectation? The answer to this question must,
we fear, be in the negative...." The _Post_ (thereby Palmerston?) did
indeed, as later charged, "prolong the excitement," but not with its
earlier animosity to America. The very fact that the _Post_ was accepted
as Palmerston's organ justified this attitude for it would have been
folly for the Government to announce prematurely a result of which there
was as yet no definite assurance. Yet _within_ the Cabinet there was a
more hopeful feeling. Argyll believed Adams' statement to Russell of
December 19 was practically conclusive[466], and Adams himself now
thought that the prevalent idea was waning of an American plan to
inflict persistent "indignities" on Britain: "at lea