he administration
he thought was losing ground and the people tired of the war. This was
the burden of his private letters to Russell up to March, 1863, but does
not appear in his official despatches in which there was nothing to give
offence to Northern statesmen. But in March, Lyons began to doubt the
correctness of these judgments. He notes a renewed Northern enthusiasm
leading to the conferring of extreme powers--the so-called "dictatorship
measures"--upon Lincoln. Wise as Lyons ordinarily was he was bound by
the social and educational traditions of his class, and had at first not
the slightest conception of the force or effect of emancipation upon the
public in middle-class England. He feared an American reaction against
England when it was understood that popular meetings would have no
influence on the British Government.

"Mr. Seward and the whole Party calculate immensely on the
effects of the anti-slavery meetings in England, and seem to
fancy that public feeling in England is coming so completely
round to the North that the Government will be obliged to
favour the North in all ways, even if it be disinclined to do
so. This notion is unlucky, as it makes those who hold it,
unreasonable and presumptuous in dealing with us[965]."

* * * * *

Lincoln's plan of emancipation and his first proclamation had little
relation to American foreign policy. Seward's attitude toward
emancipation was that the _threat_ of it and of a possible servile war
might be useful in deterring foreign nations, especially Great Britain,
from intervening. But he objected to the carrying of emancipation into
effect because he feared it would _induce_ intervention. Servile war, in
part by Seward's own efforts, in part because of earlier British
newspaper speculations, was strongly associated with emancipation, in
the English view. Hence the Government received the September, 1862,
proclamation with disfavour, the press with contempt, and the public
with apprehension--even the friends of the North. But no servile war
ensued. In January, 1863, Lincoln kept his promise of wide emancipation
and the North stood committed to a high moral object. A great wave of
relief and exultation swept over anti-slavery England, but did not so
quickly extend to governmental circles. It was largely that England
which was as yet without direct influence on Parliament which so exulted
and now uphe