“Your readers will doubtless consider that the writer of the above lines undertakes to speak on a subject of which he knows nothing; but what will they say of a writer who, in the same journal, thus expresses himself relative to the issues of the coming election?

’Lincoln being elected, the following will be the results:  The South will lose courage and abandon the contest; the lands reduced to barrenness by servile labour will be again rendered productive by the labour of the freeman; the Confederates, who know only how to fight, and who are supported by the sweat of others, will purify and regenerate themselves by the exercise of their own brains and of their own hands....’

“These strange remarks conclude with words of encouragement to the robust-shouldered, iron-fronted, firm-lipped Lincoln, and prayers for the welfare of the American brethren.

“You will not easily credit it, but this article—­a very masterpiece of delirium and absurdity—­bears the signature of one of the most eminent writers of the day, M. Henri Martin, the celebrated historian of France. (Index, Oct. 20, 1864, p. 667.)

A week later The Index was vicious in comment upon the “men and money” pouring out of Germany in aid of the North.  German financiers, under the guise of aiding emigration, were engaged in the prosperous business of “selling white-skinned Germans to cut Southern throats for the benefit, as they say, of the poor blacks.” (Oct. 27, 1864, p. 685.) This bitter tone was indulged in even by the Confederate Secretary of State.  Benjamin wrote to Slidell, September 20, 1864, that France was wilfully deceiving the South by professions of friendship.  The President, he stated, “could not escape the painful conviction that the Emperor of the French, knowing that the utmost efforts of this people are engrossed in the defence of their homes against an atrocious warfare waged by greatly superior numbers, has thought the occasion opportune for promoting his own purposes, at no greater cost than a violation of his faith and duty toward us.” (Richardson, II, p. 577.)]

[Footnote 1235:  e.g., Meeting of Glasgow Union and Emancipation Society, Oct. 11, 1864. (The Liberator, Nov. 4, 1864.)]

[Footnote 1236:  Russell Papers, Oct. 24, 1864.]

[Footnote 1237:  Ibid., Lyons to Russell, Oct. 28, 1864.]

[Footnote 1238:  Lyons Papers.  Russell to Lyons, Nov. 19, 1864.  Lyons reached London December 27, and never returned to his post in America.  Lyons’ services to the friendly relations of the United States and Great Britain were of the greatest.  He upheld British dignity yet never gave offence to that of America; he guarded British interests but with a wise and generous recognition of the difficulties of the Northern Government.  No doubt he was at heart so unneutral as to hope for Northern success, even though at first sharing in the view that there was small possibility of reunion, but this very hope—­unquestionably known to Seward and to Lincoln—­frequently eased dangerous moments in the relations with Great Britain, and was in the end a decided asset to the Government at home.]