It
brought out plainly the practical difficulties and dangers, at least as
regards Canada, of a war with America; it resulted in a weakening of the
conviction that Seward was unfriendly; it produced from the British
public an even greater expression of relief, when the incident was
closed, than of anger when it occurred; and it created in a section of
that public a fixed belief, shared by at least one member of the
Cabinet, that the issue in America was that of slavery, in support of
which England could not possibly take a stand.
This did not mean that the British Government, nor any large section of
the public, believed the North could conquer the South. But it did
indicate a renewed vigour for the policy of neutrality and a
determination not to get into war with America. Adams wrote to Seward,
"I am inclined to believe that the happening of the affair of the
_Trent_ just when it did, with just the issue that it had, was rather
opportune than otherwise[499]." Hotze, the confidential agent of the
Confederacy in London, stated, "the _Trent_ affair has done us
incalculable injury," Russell is now "an avowed enemy of our
nationality[500]." Hotze was over-gloomy, but Russell himself declared
to Lyons: "At all events I am heart and soul a neutral ... what a fuss
we have had about these two men[501].
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