I regret not being able to participate in discussion on Thursday.  Was at an information session for possible free job training.  It was not an opportunity to pass up.

However, on the matter of Mills response to Lincoln's apology, Mill appears to be consciously not using Utilitarian terminology in his rhetoric.  I noticed from posts that during the in class discussion there was a general consensus that Mill missed the reasons behind why Lincoln made the apology.  I would directly disagree, since, insofar as Mill is a brilliant man who spent so much of his life studying a vast variety of subjects, he would not be able to not notice the reasoning behind the apology.

Rather I see Mill as deliberately overlooking the real reason in order to support Lincoln.  If it were considered that if the British intervened the Union would clearly lose, he hoped to shame his colleagues into inaction.  Since, as Mill describes, Britain would be remembered for enabling a resurgence of slavery.  He seems to be working to convince his fellows that such actions would be remembered poorly by future generations.