declaration of neutrality ought to be issued.

With these questions rapidly coming to the front, it became important
for British statesmen to know something about the leaders in this new
Southern movement, the attitude of the people in general, and the
purposes of the new Government. Here, unfortunately, Lord Lyons could
be no guide. The consuls in the South, however, were in a position to
give their impressions. On February 28, 1861, Bunch wrote to Russell,
describing the election of Davis and Stephens[84], to the Presidency and
Vice-Presidency of the Confederacy, and giving a personal
characterization of many members of the Government. He was rather
caustic. Davis, he said, was the only _able_ man, and he, unfortunately,
was a confirmed "manifest destiny" leader, so much so in fact that Bunch
prophesied a renewal of filibustering when once the North had acquiesced
in a Southern State and the fear of the North had passed. Bunch had no
faith in any future greatness of the South, asserting that it would be a
State despised among nations for its maintenance of slavery, and that it
could not hope for any encouragement or sympathy from the humane nations
of Europe; in fact, his entire characterization was wholly damning to
the South. Yet it is to be noted that he never for a moment questioned
that the South had already actually established its independence. This
he seems to take for granted. Thus again, and from another quarter,
there was presented the double difficulty of England in regard to the
Civil War--the difficulty of reconciling sentiments of humanity long
preached by Great Britain, with her commercial interests and her
certainty that a new State was being born.

For men in the Northern Government Lyons was in a position to report,
but up to the end of January he had not written in any great detail with
regard to the new administration and its make-up, though on January 7,