"
"... England to-day pays one of the inevitable penalties of
free government and of material prosperity, that of having at
times at the head of national affairs statesmen who belong
rather to the past than to the present, and whose skill and
merit are rather the business tact and knowledge of details,
acquired by long experience, than the quick and prescient
comprehension of the requirements of sudden emergencies....
"The nominal conduct of Foreign Affairs is in the hands of a
diplomatic Malaprop, who has never shown vigour, activity, or
determination, except where the display of these qualities
was singularly unneeded, or even worse than useless.... From
Great Britain, then, under her actual Government, the Cabinet
at Washington has nothing to fear, and the Confederate States
nothing to expect[1074]."
Of main interest to the public was the military situation. The _Times_
minimized the western campaigns, regarding them as required for
political effect to hold the north-western states loyal to the Union,
and while indulging in no prophecies as to the fate of Vicksburg,
expressing the opinion that, if forced to surrender it, the South could
easily establish "a new Vicksburg" at some other point[1075]. Naturally
_The Index_ was pleased with and supported this view[1076].
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