Disraeli’s leading idea as to America was that, although she had long achieved independence, her original spirit had remained colonial, but that her civil war would transform the past colony into a coming empire. Speaking in 1863, he said-- “I am bound to say that from the first--and subsequent events have only confirmed my convictions--I have always looked upon the struggle in America in the light of a great revolution.[135] Great revolutions, whatever may be their alleged causes, are not likely to be commenced, or to be concluded, with precipitation. _Before the civil war commenced, the United States were colonies_, because we should not forget that such communities do not cease to be colonies because they are independent. _They were not only colonies, but colonising_; and they existed under all the conditions of colonial life except that of mere political dependence. _But even before the civil war_, I think that all impartial observers must have been convinced that in that community _there were smouldering elements which indicated the possibility of a change, and perhaps of a violent change_. The immense increase of population; the still greater increase of wealth; the introduction of foreign races in large numbers as citizens, not brought up under the laws and customs which were adapted to a more limited, and practically a more homogeneous, race; the character of the political constitution, consequent, perhaps, on these circumstances; _the absence of any theatre for the ambitious and refined intellects of the country, which deteriorated public spirit and lowered public morality_; and, above all, _the increasing influence of the United States upon the political fortunes of Europe_;--these were all circumstances which indicated _the more than possibility that the mere colonial character of these communities might suddenly be violently subverted, and those imperial characteristics appear which seem to be the destiny of man_. I cannot conceal from myself the conviction that, whoever in this House may be young enough to live to witness the ultimate consequences of this civil war, will see, whenever the waters have subsided, a different America from that which was known to our fathers, and even from that of which this generation has had so much experience. _It will be an America of armies, of diplomacy, of rival states and manœuvring cabinets, of frequent turbulence, and probably of frequent wars._ With these views, I have myself, during the last session, exerted whatever influence I possessed in endeavouring to dissuade my friends from embarrassing her Majesty’s Government in that position of politic and dignified reserve which they appeared to me to have taken upon this question. It did not appear to me, looking at these transactions across the Atlantic, _not as events of a mere casual character, but being such as might probably influence, as the great French Revolution influenced, and is still influencing, European