d every Court and Government in
Europe and America with our protests and remonstrances, until
we goaded them into at least ostensibly co-operating with us
to prevent the enslaving of the negro ... _we_ should have
lent a hand to setting up, in one of the most commanding
positions of the world, a powerful republic, devoted not only
to slavery, but to pro-slavery propagandism...."

No such protestations of relief over escape from a possible alliance
with the South were made officially by the Government, or in a debate
upon the _Trent_, February 6, when Parliament reassembled. In the Lords
the Earl of Shelburne thought that America should have made a frank and
open apology. The Earl of Derby twitted the United States with having
yielded to force alone, but said the time "had not yet come" for
recognizing the Confederacy. Lord Dufferin expressed great friendship
for America and declared that Englishmen ought to make themselves better
informed of the real merits of the Civil War. Earl Granville, speaking
for the Government, laid stress upon the difficulties at home of the
Washington administration in pacifying public opinion and asserted a
personal belief that strict neutrality was England's best policy,
"although circumstances may arise which may call for a different
course." On the same day in the Commons the debate was of a like general
tenor to that in the Lords, but Disraeli differed from his chief (Derby)
in that he thought America had been placed in a very difficult position
in which she had acted very honourably. Palmerston took much credit for
the energetic military preparations, but stated "from that position of
strict neutrality, it is not our intention to depart "--an important
declaration if taken, as apparently it was not, as fixing a policy. In
substance all speakers, whether Whig or Tory, praised the Government's
stand, and expressed gratification with the peaceful outcome[497].

A further debate on the _Trent_ was precipitated by Bright on February
17, in connection with the estimates to cover the cost of the military
contingents sent to Canada. He asserted that England by generously
trusting to American honour, might have won her lasting friendship, and
it is worthy of note that for the first time in any speech made by him
_in Parliament_, Bright declared that the war was one for the abolition
of slavery. Palmerston in reply made no comment on the matter of
slavery, but energe