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force of events which then you did not dream of. President Lincoln has lived half his troubled reign.
In the coming half I hope he may see land; surely slavery will be so broken up that nothing can restore and renew it; and, slavery once fairly gone, I know not how all your States can long be kept asunder.
Believe me very sincerely yours, John Bright.
It also called forth from Archbishop Whately the following letter:--
Dear Madam,--In acknowledging your letter and pamphlet, I take the opportunity of laying before you what I collect to be the prevailing sentiments here on American affairs.
Of course there is a great variety of opinion, as may be expected in a country like ours.
Some few sympathize with the Northerns, and some few with the Southerns, but far the greater portion sympathize with neither completely, but lament that each party should be making so much greater an expenditure of life and property than can be compensated for by any advantage they can dream of obtaining.
Those who are the least favorable to the Northerns are not so from any approbation of slavery, but from not understanding that the war is waged in the cause of abolition. “It was waged,” they say, “ostensibly for the restoration of the Union,” and in attestation of this, they refer to the proclamation which announced the confiscation of slaves that were the property of secessionists, while those who adhered to the Federal cause should be exempt from such confiscation, which,