Aristocratic exultation had given place to alarm and it seemed wiser, if possible, to quiet the issue[1381].

Not so the Radicals, who made every effort to keep the issue alive in the minds of the British public, and whose leaders with less violence but increased firmness debated the question in every public meeting favourable to the North[1382].

Many Conservatives, Adams reported, were now anxiously sitting on the fence yet finding the posture a difficult one because of their irritation at Bright's taunts[1383].

Bright's star was rising.

"The very moment the war comes to an end," wrote Adams, "and a restoration of the Union follows, it will be the signal for a reaction that will make Mr.Bright perhaps the most formidable public man in England[1384]." The continuation of the controversy was not, however, wholly one-sided.
In the silence of the daily press it seemed incumbent upon the more eager and professed friends of the South to take up the cudgels.