popular mind, it scarcely seems advisable to run the
risk of changing the current in Great Britain by the presentation of a
new issue which might rally all national pride against us as was done in
the _Trent_ case[996]." That Russell was indeed thinking of definite
action is foreshadowed by the advice he gave to Palmerston on March 27,
as to the latter's language in the debate scheduled for that day on the
Foreign Enlistment Act. Russell wrote, referring to the interview
with Adams:

"The only thing which Adams could think of when I asked him
what he had to propose in reference to the _Alabama_ was that
the Government should declare their disapproval of the
fitting out of such ships of war to prey on
American commerce.

"Now, as the fitting out and escape of the _Alabama_ and
_Oreto_ was clearly an evasion of our law, I think you can
have no difficulty in declaring this evening that the
Government disapprove of all such attempts to elude our law
with a view to assist one of the belligerents[997]."

But the tone of parliamentary debate did not bear out the hopeful view
of the American Minister. It was, as Bright wrote to Sumner, "badly
managed and told against us[998]," and Bright himself participated in
this "bad management." For over a year he had been advocating the cause
of the North in public speeches and everywhere pointing out to
unenfranchised England that the victory of the North was essential to
democracy in all Europe. Always an orator of power he used freely
vigorous language and nowhere more so than in a great public meeting of
the Trades Unions of London in St. James' Hall, on March 26, the evening
before the parliamentary debate. The purpose of this meeting was to
bring public pressure on the Government in favour of the North, and the
pith of Bright's speech was to contrast the democratic instincts of
working men with the aristocratic inclinations of the Government[999].
Reviewing "aristocratic" attitude toward the Civil War, Bright said:

"Privilege thinks it has a great interest in this contest,
and every morning, with blatant voice, it comes into your
streets and curses the American Republic. Privilege has
beheld an afflicting spectacle for many years past. It has
beheld thirty millions of men, happy and prosperous, without
emperor, without king, without the surroundings of a court,
without nobles, except such as a