" But Delane
permitted no such positive prophecy to appear in the _Times_. Darwin is
good testimony of the all-prevalent British feeling: "I hope to God we
English are utterly wrong in doubting whether the North can conquer the
South." "How curious it is that you seem to think that you can conquer
the South; and I never meet a soul, even those who would most wish it,
who think it possible--that is, to conquer and retain it[336]."
In September, after the first interest in Bull Run had waned, there
appeared several books and articles on the American question which gave
opportunity for renewal of newspaper comment and controversy. A Dr.
Lempriere, "of the Inner Temple, law fellow of St. John's College,
Oxford," published a work, _The American Crisis Considered_, chiefly
declamatory, upholding the right of Southern secession, stating that no
one "who has the slightest acquaintance with the political action of
history would term the present movement rebellion." With this the
_Spectator_ begged leave to differ[337]. The _Saturday Review_
acknowledged that a prolonged war might force slavery and emancipation
to the front, but denied them as vital at present, and offered this view
as a defence against the recrimination of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe,
who had accused the paper of unfair treatment in a review of her
pamphlet exhibiting emancipation as the object of the North.
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