He thought it very probable that the issue of emancipation would soon be forced upon Lincoln, and that the American conflict would then take on a new and more ideal character[445].

This letter, arriving in the midst of uncertainty about the _Trent_ solution, was in line with news published in the British papers calling out editorials from them largely in disapproval[446].

Certainly Russell was averse to war.

If the prisoners were not given up, what, he asked, ought England then to do?
Would it be wise to delay hostilities or to begin them at once?
"An early resort to hostilities will enable us at once to raise the blockade of the South, to blockade the North, and to prevent the egress of numerous ships, commissioned as privateers which will be sent against our commerce." But then, there was Canada, at present not defensible.

He had been reading Alison on the War of 1812, and found that then the American army of invasion had numbered but 2,500 men.