He could with difficulty believe that South Carolina wished to be re-annexed as a colony of Great Britain, and comments upon the episode in a somewhat humorous vein.

Nevertheless in concluding his letter, he solemnly assures Lord Lyons that "...

The Jockey Club is composed of the 'best people' of South Carolina--rich planters and the like.

It represents, therefore, the 'gentlemanly interest' and not a bit of universal suffrage." It would be idle to assume that either in South Carolina or in England there was, in February, 1860, any serious thought of a resumption of colonial relations, though W.H.Russell, correspondent of the _Times_, reported in the spring, 1861, that he frequently heard the same sentiment in the South[50].

For general official England, as for the press, the truth is that up to the time of the secession of South Carolina no one really believed that a final rupture was about to take place between North and South.