But Mr. Bright had another self; a
faithful shadow, which had no ideas, no soul, no other
existence but what it borrowed from him, while its previous
life and education had accustomed it to the society of
statesmen and of gentlemen[1386]."
Such expressions gained nothing for the Conservative cause; they were
too evidently the result of alarm at the progress of Radical and
pro-Northern sentiment. Goldwin Smith in a "Letter" to the Southern
Independence Association, analysed with clarity the situation. Answering
criticisms of the passionate mob spirit of Northern press and people, he
accused the _Times_ of having
"... pandered to the hatred of America among the upper
classes of this country during the present war. Some of us at
least had been taught by what we have lately seen not to
shrink from an extension of the suffrage, if the only bad
consequence of that measure of justice would be a change in
government from the passions of the privileged class to the
passions of the people.... History will not mistake the
meaning of the loud cry of triumph which burst from the
hearts of all who openly or secretly hated liberty and
progress, at the fall, as they fondly supposed, of the Great
Republic." British working men "are for the most part as well
aware that the cause of those who are fighting for the right
of labour is theirs, as any nobleman in your Association can
be that the other cause in his[1387].
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