Great Britain was torn between taking action (or in this case inaction) in the war so that slavery would end, or so at least they wouldn't appear to be supporting it, and openly supporting the Confederacy, helping to split a potential and growing rival in two.
The US had 31 million people by 1861, 27 million of them whites, and 22 million of those in the North, so Britain had to be politically and diplomatically careful. The child had grown to dwarf the mother country in population, industry (to a lesser degree) and resources, and if GB ended up in the war against the North, it could well lose.
Add to this the position of Queen Victoria against slavery. Britain had already abolished the practice 30 years ago, and the majority of the population were appalled by its continued existence and growth in the South. English warships actively stopped Spanish slave trade ships in the Atlantic, so they were clearly an abolitionist nation, with a foreign policy to match.
Even Frederick Douglass went to England on a speaking tour, telling of the horrors he experienced under slavery, raising money to purchase his own freedom, and making it more difficult for GB to come in on the Confederate side.
No other country seriously considered intervention on either side, and the most Britain did to help out the South was build a few warships for her and buy smuggled cotton.
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