Yet for intellectual Britain, at least--that Britain which was vocal and whose opinion can be ascertained in spite of this constant interest in American slavery, there was generally a fixed belief that slavery in the United States was so firmly established that it could not be overthrown.

Of what use, then, the further expenditure of British sympathy or effort in a lost cause?
Senior himself, at the conclusion of his fierce attack on the Southern States, expressed the pessimism of British abolitionists.

He wrote, "We do not venture to hope that we, or our sons, or our grandsons, will see American slavery extirpated, or even materially mitigated[30]." FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: State Department, Eng., Vol.

LXXIX, No.

135, March 27, 1862.] [Footnote 2: Walpole, _Russell_, Vol.