[Non-Sequitur]

Slavery was very unpopular in Britain but it is doubtful that the British would ever have come in on the confederate side regardless. They had no problem with southern independence and offered on several occasions to mediate a settlement but Lincoln's government always turned them down. Regardless of the south's hopes and wishes, there was simply no desire, nor any real reason for armed intervention by Her Majesties government and the North knew it. The Emancipation Proclamation was another tool used to weaken and defeat the south. No more and no less.

[Mark17]

Regardless of the south's hopes and wishes, there was simply no desire, nor any real reason for armed intervention by Her Majesties government and the North knew it.

If that is true, maybe it was due to the fact that they had such a rough time in the 1770's and the War of 1812, and did not want any more of it.