[Illustration: _Carl Haag, R.W.S._} {_From the Royal Collection._ THE QUEEN AND PRINCE CONSORT FORDING THE POLL TARFF, October 9, 1861. The story of this, the last excursion taken by the Queen in company with the Prince Consort, is told in a very interesting chapter of Her Majesty's "Leaves from the Journal of our Life in the Highlands." On the previous night the Royal party had stayed, unexpected and unrecognised, at the inn of Balwhinnie, "where," says Her Majesty, "there was hardly anything to eat; only tea and two miserable starved Highland chickens, without any potatoes; no pudding, and no _fun_." But in this last particular the succeeding day's exploits certainly cannot have been deficient.] CHAPTER XII. 1861-1865. The American Civil War--Recognition of Confederate States as Belligerents--English Opinion in Favour of the Confederates--The _Trent_ Affair--Dispatch of Troops to Canada--Death of the Prince Consort--His Last Memorandum--The Cruiser _Alabama_--Claims against Great Britain--Arbitration--Award Unfavourable to Great Britain--Public Indignation--Marriage of the Prince of Wales--The Schleswig-Holstein Difficulty--Neutrality Observed by Great Britain--Popular Sympathy with Denmark--Dissolution of Parliament--Result of the Elections--Death of Lord Palmerston. [Sidenote: The American Civil War.] The election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, and the consequent decree abolishing slavery, brought about the secession of the Southern States and the outbreak of civil war on a vast scale early in 1861. It was not to be expected that such a convulsion among people of British speech and descent could run its course without taking effect on a country so intimately associated with the United States as Great Britain was in commerce, literature, and social relations. The first difficulty arose out of the question whether the Southern States--the Confederates, as they were designated--should receive recognition as belligerents, or whether they should be regarded as rebels against the Federal Government. Lord John Russell, having consulted the law officers of the Crown, announced on May 8 that the Government had decided to recognise the belligerency of the Southern Confederation, and a proclamation of neutrality was issued on May 13. This act was interpreted as unfriendly by the Federal Government, who claimed that no State in the Union had a constitutional right to secede, that it could only rebel, and that the British Government had unduly favoured the rebels by prohibiting Her Majesty's subjects from enlisting in the service of either Federals or Confederates. On the other hand, the Northern or Federal Government had proclaimed the blockade of the Southern ports, thereby implying that Confederates were belligerents and not rebels, for no Government can _blockade_ its own ports, it can only _close_ them. So far, therefore, from favouring the Confederate cause by