In England up to this point the main current of public opinion set in favour of the North. Lord Shaftesbury gave expression to the general voice when he said, in a letter to the _Times_, “the triumph of the South meant the consolidation of slavery, and his sympathies, therefore, were wholly for the North.”[128] But the inflated language in which Northern partisans discounted their easy conquest of the South, and denounced the “unnatural rebellion” of the Confederate States, tended to strengthen the aristocratic faction who were in favour of the South. It was asked sarcastically if Secession could possibly be more illegal than the revolt of the Thirteen Colonies from which the Federal Union sprang? Had not Americans defended, with wearisome iteration, the sacred right of insurrection in Monarchical countries? Was it consistent with English Liberalism to scan too closely the legitimate origin of States, either in the Old world or the New, which having struck out an independent existence, were prepared to defend it? As for slavery, had not President Lincoln overruled General Fremont’s order liberating slaves in Missouri? In fact, the partisans of the South grew bolder every day. The asperity of the Northern Press and Government, when they found they could not command the unanimous support of England, favoured the progress of the Southern cause in England. In concert with the French Government, Lord Palmerston not only adopted a policy of neutrality, but recognised each party to the struggle as belligerents. He would indeed have been foolish to have treated the people of twelve organised States as a small mob of rioters, and armed ships flying their flags, as pirates. For this step England was as violently denounced in the North, as France was fulsomely praised. The classes who have no anchorage in principles for their plastic opinions were fast veering round to the side of the South, and Mr. Lincoln’s strong measures, which caused _Habeas Corpus_ to be suspended in Washington, suppressed newspapers, and imprisoned persons suspected of disloyalty, helped to obscure the real issue in the eyes of the English people.