Lord Palmerston, Prime Minister of England, asserted that: “As far as my influence goes, I am determined to do all I can to prevent the reconstruction of the Union.”—“I hold that it will be of the greatest importance that the reconstruction of the Union should not take place.”
February 5, 1863, Lord Malmesbury spoke disdainfully of treating with so extraordinary a body as the government of the United States, and referred to the horrors of the war—“horrors unparalleled even in the wars of barbarous nations.”
England confidently believed that the North would suffer a crushing defeat, and the same opinion was held by the French government. Napoleon the Third felt absolutely confident that the South would triumph. (See “[France’s Friendship for the United States].”)
The London “Times” in 1862 voiced English sentiment against the Union in a manner that has been paralleled only by its denunciations of Germany at the present time. It said:
“To bully the weak, to triumph over the helpless, to trample on every law of country and customs, wilfully to violate the most sacred interests of human nature—to defy as long asdanger does not appear, and as soon as real peril shows itself, to sneak aside and run away—these are the virtues of the race which presumes to announce itself as the leader of civilization and the prophet of human progress in these latter days.”
A clear statement of the English Parliament’s attitude toward the United States in the Civil War is contained in the autobiography of Sir William Gregory, K. C. M. G. (Member of Parliament and one-time Governor of Ceylon), edited by Lady Gregory (London, 1894), pp. 214-6: “The feeling of the upper classes undoubtedly predominated in favor of the South, so much so that when I said in a speech that the adherents of the North in the House of Commons might all be driven home in one omnibus, the remark was received with much cheering.”
Among those who invested in the Confederate bonds were many Members of Parliament and editors of London newspapers. Prominent among them was Gladstone. “Donahoe’s Magazine,” April, 1867, published a list of prominent investors in Confederate bonds, which shows that 29 persons lost a total of $4,490,000 in such investments. The list follows:
| Lbs. | |
|---|---|
| Sir Henry de Hington, Bart | 180,000 |
| Isaac Campbell & Co. | 150,000 |
| Thomas Sterling Begley | 140,000 |
| Marquis of Bath | 50,000 |
| James Spence | 50,000 |
| Beresford Hope | 50,000 |
| George Edward Seymour | 40,000 |
| Charles Joice & Co. | 40,000 |
| Messrs. Ferace | 30,000 |
| Alexander Colie & Co. | 20,000 |
|
Fleetwood, Polen, Wilson & Schuster, Directors of Union Bank of London, together | 20,000 |
| W. S. Lindsay | 20,000 |
| Sir Coutts Lindsay, Bart | 20,000 |
| John Laced, M. P. from Birkenhead | 20,000 |
|
M. B. Sampson, Editor of Times | 15,000 |
|
John Thadeus Delane, Editor of Times | 10,000 |
|
Lady Georgianna Time, Sister of Lord Westmoreland | 10,000 |
|
J. S. Gillet, Director of the Bank of England | 10,000 |
| D. Forbes Campbell | 8,000 |
| George Peacock, M. P. | 5,000 |
| Lord Warncliff | 5,000 |
| [W. H.] Gregory, M. P. | 4,000 |
|
W. J. Rideout, London Morning Post | 4,000 |
| Edward Ackroyd | 1,000 |
| Lord Campbell | 1,000 |
| Lord Donoughmore | 1,000 |
| Lord Richard Grosvenor | |
|
Hon. Evelyn Ashley, Priv. Sec. to Lord Palmerston | 500 |
| Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone | 20,000 |
| Total Losses | £898,000 |
The present holders of these bonds have never despaired of being able some day to collect the amounts from the United States Treasury, and it will only need a closer alliance between the United States and Great Britain, as proposed by the advocates of an Anglo-Saxon amalgamation, to bring these claims to the front.