 The final few months of 1862 saw a high water mark for Benjamin 's diplomacy . In October , the British Chancellor of the Exchequer , William E. Gladstone , expressed confidence in Confederate victory , stating in Newcastle , " There is no doubt that Jefferson Davis and other leaders of the South have made an army . They are making , it appears , a navy , and they have made what is more than either — they have made a nation . " Later that month , Napoleon proposed to the British and Russians ( a U.S. ally ) that they combine to require a six months ' armistice for mediation , and an end to the blockade ; if they did so , it would likely lead to Southern independence . The proposal divided the British Cabinet . In mid @-@ November , at the urgings of Palmerston and War Secretary George Cornewall Lewis , members decided to continue to wait for the South to defeat Lincoln 's forces before recognizing it . Although proponents of intervention were prepared to await another opportunity , growing realization among the British public that the Emancipation Proclamation meant that Union victory would be slavery 's end made succoring the South politically infeasible . 
