Why exactly did British Elites support the position of the confederacy more so then the position of the Union?

Certain politicians briefly consider helping the confederacy for a few reasons. Firstly there's cotton which was the main negotiating piece the confederacy used. Britain's textile industry was massive and of great importance to its national economy, the southern states prior to the war had been a major source of cotton for the textiles industry and the disruption of this supply chain by the union blockade made some suggest Britain should force the blockade to be opened. For the most part though British mills found other sources for their manufacturing.

Additionally from a power politics perspective the united kingdom and the British empire at the time was one of the world's greatest powers and while the US was only just beginning to challenge Britain in terms of economics if not yet in terms of diplomatic influence or power projection capabilities some where beginning to think that Britain should consider acting to constrain the power of the US and that if the southern states could successfully secede that would provide a small counter balance to the US, perhaps preventing it from expanding south to invade and conquer Mexican territory and the like.

At a smaller scale there was also the Trent affair. A British mail vessel took as passengers a pair of confederate negotiators who where trying to get across the Atlantic to get diplomatic recognition from European powers for the confederacy. A US naval vessel intercepted the vessel out beyond American waters and forced to to stop and be boarded and the envoys and their staff were taken as prisoners by the US navy. This at the time was illegal under international law and considered quite provocative by the British government that demanded an apology and the release of the envoys which the US agreed to.

While American grain imports from the Union did play a role in the decision it would also have been unpopular with the vast majority of Britain's middle class that had a strong abolitionist streak over the last few decades and many pro-abolitionist news papers and the like particularly after the Emancipation Proclamation persuaded a lot of the British public that slavery was the key question the war was being fought over and as such Britain couldn't morally justify supporting the confederacy.

In the end the British government provided the confederacy with very little. The government never threw its support in enough with the confederacy to actively decide to supply or recognise its independence as a result the majority of British guns that arrived in the confederacy did so as private purchase from british gun manufacturers largely to individual confederate officers and or states and the like. Revolvers was one of the more common items to be purchased, Beaumont–Adams revolver which saw use on both sides of the conflict, the Kerr revolver and the tranter revolver. American cavalrymen in general and particularly confederates liked revolvers which they tended to skirmish with a lot compared to cavalry elsewhere that still valued the more decisive impact of a charge with sabre and lance. While the Union was still able to produce many of their revolvers domestically (although they still occasionally purchased some elsewhere) the confederates didn't have the factories of the north and so they had to buy such revolvers abroad and smuggle them in. Similarly in an attempt to answer the unions use of springfield rifles they purchased some copies of the enfield which was a similar British rifled musket (Both were derived from the French Minié rifle). Another in smaller quantities the Whitworth rifle, a marksman's rifle of famously high quality the confederates used for picking off officers and artillery crews.