When indeed the Southern capture of Fort Sumter in
Charleston harbour finally brought the actual clash of arms, Lyons
expressed himself with regard to other elements in the struggle
previously neglected in his correspondence. On April 15 describing to
Russell the fall of Sumter, he stated that civil war had at last begun.
The North he believed to be very much more powerful than the South, the
South more "eager" and united as yet, but, he added, "the taint of
slavery will render the cause of the South loathsome to the civilized
world." It was true that "commercial intercourse with the cotton States
is of vital importance to manufacturing nations[124]...." but Lyons was
now facing an actual situation rather than a possible one, and as will
be seen later, he soon ceased to insist that an interruption of this
"commercial intercourse" gave reasonable ground for recognition of
the South.
With the fall of Fort Sumter and the European recognition that a civil
war was actually under way in America, a large number of new and vexing
problems was presented to Russell. His treatment of them furnishes the
subject matter of later chapters. For the period previous to April,
1861, British official attitude may be summed up in the statement that
the British Minister at Washington hoped against hope that some solution
might be found for the preservation of the Union, but that at the same
time, looking to future British interests and possibly believing also
that his attitude would tend to preserve the Union, he asserted
vehemently the impossibility of any Northern interference with British
trade to Southern ports.
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