Less political journals followed suit.

The _Economist_ thought the people of England would now be convinced of the folly of aping America and that those who had advocated universal suffrage would be filled with "mingled alarm, gratitude and shame[1331]." Soon W.H.Russell could write, while still at Washington "...

the world will only see in it all, the failure of republican institutions in time of pressure as demonstrated by all history--that history which America vainly thought she was going to set right and re-establish on new grounds and principles[1332]." "The English worshippers of American institutions," said the _Saturday Review_, "are in danger of losing their last pretext for preferring the Republic to the obsolete and tyrannical Monarchy of England....

It now appears that the peaceable completion of the secession has become impossible, and it will be necessary to discover some new ground of superiority by which Mr.Buchanan or Mr.Lincoln may be advantageously contrasted with Queen Victoria[1333]." These expressions antedated the news of the actual opening of the war and may be regarded as jeers at Bright and his followers rather than as attempts to read a lesson to the public.

No such expressions are to be found in the letters of leading officials though minor ones occasionally indulged in them[1334].