"
"I am sorry to say, however," the Minister hastened to add, "that the
Proclamation of Emancipation was not received by the best people of
England as favorably as we had hoped."
"And why not?" Seward politely asked.
"Seeing that it could have no effect in really freeing the slaves until
the South is conquered it appeared to be merely an attempt to excite a
servile insurrection."
The Secretary lifted his eyebrows, took another dip of snuff, and softly
inquired:
"And may I ask of your lordship whether this would not have been even
more true in the earlier days of the war than now?"
"Undoubtedly."
"And yet I understand that her Gracious Majesty's Government was cold
toward us because we had failed to take such high moral grounds at once
in the beginning of the war?"
His lordship lifted his hands in polite admission of the facts.
"The trouble you see is," he went on softly, "Europe begins to feel that
the division of sentiment in the North will prove a fatal weakness to
the administration in so grave a crisis. Unfortunately, from our point
of view, of course, your Government is a democracy, the sport of every
whim of the demagogue of the hour----"
Seward lifted his eyes with a quick look at his lordship and smiled:
"Allow me to reassure her Gracious Majesty's Government on that point
immediately.
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