October 17, Lewis
circulated a memorandum in reply to that of Russell's of October 13. He
agreed with Russell's statement of the facts of the situation in
America, but added with sarcasm:
"A dispassionate bystander might be expected to concur in the
historical view of Lord Russell, and to desire that the war
should be speedily terminated by a pacific agreement between
the contending parties. But, unhappily, the decision upon any
proposal of the English Government will be made, not by
dispassionate bystanders, but by heated and violent
partisans; and we have to consider, not how the proposal
indicated in the Memorandum ought to be received, or how it
would be received by a conclave of philosophers, but how it
is likely to be received by the persons to whom it would be
addressed."
Lincoln's emancipation proclamation, Lewis admitted, presumably was
intended to incite servile war, but that very fact was an argument
against, not for, British action, since it revealed an intensity of
bitterness prohibitory of any "calm consideration" of issues by the
belligerents. And suppose the North did acquiesce in an armistice the
only peaceful solution would be an independent slave-holding South for
the establishment of which Great Britain would have become intermediary
and sponsor.
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