fact nearly all vehicles of British expression, were in the early
'sixties "in the hands of the educated classes, and these educated
classes corresponded closely with the privileged classes." The more
democratic element of British Society lacked any adequate press
representation of its opinions. "This body could express itself by such
comparatively crude methods as public meetings and demonstrations, but
it was hampered in literary and political expression[42]." The opinion
of the press was then, presumably, the opinion of the majority of the
educated British public.

Thus British comment on America took the form, at first of
moralizations, now severe toward the South, now indifferent, yet very
generally asserting the essential justice of the Northern position. But
it was early evident that the newspapers, one and all, were quite
unprepared for the determined front soon put up by South Carolina and
other Southern States. Surprised by the violence of Southern
declarations, the only explanation found by the British press was that
political control had been seized by the uneducated and lawless element.
The _Times_ characterized this element of the South as in a state of
deplorable ignorance comparable with that of the Irish peasantry, a
"poor, proud, lazy, excitable and violent class, ever ready with knife
and revolver[43]." The fate of the Union, according to the _Saturday
Review_, was in the hands of the "most ignorant, most unscrupulous, and
most lawless [class] in the world--the poor or mean whites of the Slave
States[44]." Like judgments were expressed by the _Economist_ and, more
mildly, by the _Spectator_[45]. Subsequently some of these journals
found difficulty in this connection, in swinging round the circle to
expressions of admiration for the wise and powerful aristocracy of the
South; but all, especially the _Times_, were skilled by long practice
in the journalistic art of facing about while claiming perfect