In fact, she was morally an actor in the conflict.

Such were the antagonistic influences at work in her own midst, and the division of parties, that, in judging American affairs she could not help lending sanction to one or the other side of her own internal conflicts.

England was not, then, a judge, sitting calmly on the bench to decide without bias; the case brought before her was her own, in principle, and in interest.

In taking sides with the North, the common people of Great Britain and the laboring class took sides with themselves in their struggle for reformation; while the wealthy and the privileged classes found a reason in their own political parties and philosophies why they should not be too eager for the legitimate government and nation of the United States.
"All classes who, at home, were seeking the elevation and political enfranchisement of the common people, were with us.

All who studied the preservation of the state in its present unequal distribution of political privileges, sided with that section in America that were doing the same thing.
"We ought not to be surprised nor angry that men should maintain aristocratic doctrines which they believe in fully as sincerely, and more consistently, than we, or many amongst us do, in democratic doctrines.
"We of all people ought to understand how a government can be cold or semi-hostile, while the people are friendly with us.