"Until we are positively informed that our Ministers are guilty of the great crime attributed to them," the _Herald_ declared, "we must hope against hope that they are innocent." If guilty they were responsible for the misery of Lancashire (depicted in lurid colours): "A clear, a sacred, an all-important duty was imposed upon them; to perform that duty would have been the pride and delight of almost any other Englishmen; and they, with the task before them and the power to perform it in their hands--can it be that they have shrunk back in craven cowardice, deserted their ally, betrayed their country, dishonoured their own names to all eternity, that they might do the bidding of John Bright, and sustain for a while the infamous tyranny of a Butler, a Seward, and a Lincoln[827] ?" In the non-political _Army and Navy Gazette_ the returned editor, W.H.
Russell, but lately the _Times_ correspondent in America, jeered at the American uproar that might now be expected against France instead of England: "Let the Emperor beware.

The scarred veteran of the New York Scarrons of Plum Gut has set his sinister or dexter eye upon him, and threatens him with the loss of his throne," but the British public must expect no lasting change of Northern attitude toward England and must be ready for a war if the North were victorious[828].

_Blackwood's_ for November, 1862, strongly censured the Government for its failure to act.
The _Edinburgh_ for January, 1863, as strongly supported the Ministry and expanded on the fixed determination of Great Britain to keep out of the war.

_The Index_ naturally frothed in angry disappointment, continuing its attacks, as if in hopes of a reversal of Ministerial decision, even into the next year.

"Has it come to this?
Is England, or the English Cabinet, afraid of the Northern States?
Lord Russell might contrive so to choose his excuses as not to insult at once both his country and her ally[829]." An editorial from the _Richmond_ (Virginia) _Whig_ was quoted with approval characterizing Russell and Palmerston as "two old painted mummies," who secretly were rejoiced at the war in America as "threatening the complete annihilation" of both sides, and expressing the conviction that if the old Union were restored both North and South would eagerly turn on Great Britain[830].