The theorists are eager for events to crown them with the
flattery of verified prediction. The commercial classes are ill pleased
that their thrift should be curtailed; the manufacturers grumble about
the scarcity of cotton. The timid minds of some honest thinkers did not
see the real issue, until the regular developments of the war satisfied
them; the lower orders had to be told before they could comprehend that
in our destiny they must read the counterpart of their own. Those
pretentious philanthropists who have assumed to direct the anti-slavery
party in England have mostly espoused the Southern side of the quarrel;
thus demonstrating that their moral scruples have no higher source than
their own political advantage, and no more lofty end than to divide and
distract a sister-nation. Of these we may instance the most conspicuous
of all, Lord Brougham,--who, after having for half a century derived all
the benefit he could from the striking and pathetic points in slavery to
vivify his eloquence, turns the bitter vial of his dotage against those
who stake everything upon its extinction.
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