He notes a renewed Northern enthusiasm leading to the conferring of extreme powers--the so-called "dictatorship measures"-- upon Lincoln.

Wise as Lyons ordinarily was he was bound by the social and educational traditions of his class, and had at first not the slightest conception of the force or effect of emancipation upon the public in middle-class England.

He feared an American reaction against England when it was understood that popular meetings would have no influence on the British Government.
"Mr.Seward and the whole Party calculate immensely on the effects of the anti-slavery meetings in England, and seem to fancy that public feeling in England is coming so completely round to the North that the Government will be obliged to favour the North in all ways, even if it be disinclined to do so.

This notion is unlucky, as it makes those who hold it, unreasonable and presumptuous in dealing with us[965]." * * * * * Lincoln's plan of emancipation and his first proclamation had little relation to American foreign policy.

Seward's attitude toward emancipation was that the _threat_ of it and of a possible servile war might be useful in deterring foreign nations, especially Great Britain, from intervening.