CHAPTER II.
FIRST KNOWLEDGE OF IMPENDING CONFLICT, 1860-61.
It has been remarked by the American historian, Schouler, that immediately before the outbreak of the Civil War, diplomatic controversies between England and America had largely been settled, and that England, pressed from point to point, had "sullenly" yielded under American demands.

This generalization, as applied to what were, after all, minor controversies, is in great measure true.

In larger questions of policy, as regards spheres of influence or developing power, or principles of trade, there was difference, but no longer any essential opposition or declared rivalry[31].

In theories of government there was sharp divergence, clearly appreciated, however, only in governing-class Britain.

This sense of divergence, even of a certain threat from America to British political institutions, united with an established opinion that slavery was permanently fixed in the United States to reinforce governmental indifference, sometimes even hostility, to America.