Diary of Henry Greville, Sunday, January 19, 1862

Robert Meade came here last night and gave the good news of the safety of the 'Parana.'

I have a letter from Fanny Kemble, dated December 27th. On American affairs she says: 'As to going to war with America, I do not think England will do it, for I am sure the Americans will do all they can to avert such a catastrophe. In spite of their bragging, and their Bulls' Run, the people are undoubtedly brave, and have plenty of pluck in them, but in their present position of affairs, a conflict with England would simply be impossible for them, and they are perfectly aware of it. Everybody without exception is horrified at the idea of such a calamity, and where you have picked up the idea that they are ambitious of having such a climax put to their disastrous difficulties, I cannot conceive. If they are forced to fight, they will; for whatever you may think to the contrary, they are not in the least cowardly; but, wanting in common sense, as I do think they are (more than any people in the world, I begin to think), they will assuredly do everything they can to avert such a catastrophe, and I do hope most fervently that no evil feeling for their past vulgar insolence and folly, and no desire to open their cotton market for our uses again, will induce England to aggravate their present troubles by taking any ungenerous advantage of them.

'You can form no idea of the difficulties these people have had to struggle with, in their present contest with their rebellious Southern States. You can form no idea, even by the miserable results that reach you, of their state of ignorance and want of preparation for war—of the extraordinary effects of the blessed conditions of prosperity under which they have hitherto lived, in paralysing them at the beginning of a contest, for which they were wholly unprepared. Their utter democracy, too, acts in a thousand ways as an impediment to their getting up at once, and wielding effectually and suddenly their vast means of offence and defence; but I do not believe that, for as bad a beginning as they have made, they will not steadily carry out the purpose of reducing the Seceding States to submission (whatever they may be able to do with them hereafter); and remember that the French Armies of the Revolution were the troops of a Government whose monstrous and ludicrous theories did not prevent their soldiers from fighting well enough. These people are so absurd and so offensive in all their demonstrations, that English people cannot, in the midst of their amazement and disgust, conceive the difficulties they have had to encounter, and the wonderful energy (all the more wonderful for their ignorance) with which they have grappled with them. I am much shocked by the news of Prince Albert's death. It is much to be deplored that his life should thus have been prematurely shortened, for he was a worthy gentleman, whose influence seems to me to have been excellent in the sphere in which he exerted it, and who surely filled a difficult and not dignified position with great discretion and good sense.'

SOURCE: Alice Countess of Stratford, Leaves from the Diary of Henry Greville: 1861-1872, pp. 10-12