re made by eminence in
intellect and virtue, without State bishops and
State priests.

"'Sole venders of the lore which works salvation,' without
great armies and great navies, without great debt and without
great taxes.

* * * * *

"You wish the freedom of your country. You wish it for
yourselves.... Do not then give the hand of fellowship to the
worst foes of freedom that the world has ever seen.... You
will not do this. I have faith in you. Impartial history
will tell that, when your statesmen were hostile or coldly
neutral, when many of your rich men were corrupt, when your
press--which ought to have instructed and defended--was
mainly written to betray, the fate of a Continent and of its
vast population being in peril, you clung to freedom with an
unfailing trust that God in his infinite mercy will yet make
it the heritage of all His children[1000]."

The public meeting of March 26 was the most notable one in support of
the North held throughout the whole course of the war, and it was also
the most notable one as indicating the rising tide of popular demand for
more democratic institutions. That it irritated the Government and gave
a handle to Southern sympathizers in the parliamentary debate of March
27 is unquestioned. In addition, if that debate was intended to secure
from the Government an intimation of future policy against Southern
shipbuilding it was conducted on wrong lines for _immediate_
effect--though friends of the North may have thought the method used was
wise for _future_ effect. This method was vigorous attack. Forster,
leading in the debate[1001], called on Ministers to explain the
"flagrant" violation of the Foreign Enlistment Act, and to offer some
pledge for the future; he asserted that the Government should have been
active on its own initiative in seeking evidence instead of waiting to
be urged to enforce the law, and he even hinted at a certain degree of
complicity in the escape of the _Alabama_. The Solicitor-General
answered in a legal defence of the Government, complained of the offence
of America in arousing its citizens against Great Britain upon
unjustifiable grounds, but did not make so vigorous a reply as might,
perhaps, have been expected. Still he stood firmly on the ground that
the Government could not act without evidence to convict--in itself a
statement that might