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XI.

posed by a skilled diplomatist will be likely to seem CHAP. wise and moderate, and deserving of a complete approval; but if a Statesman goes on approving and approving one by one a long series of one a long series of papers of this sort, without rousing himself to the effort of taking a broader view of the transactions which he has separately examined, he may find himself entangled in a course of action which he never intended to adopt. Perhaps this view tends to explain the reasons which caused a Minister whose love of peace was passionate and almost fanatical to become gradually and imperceptibly responsible for a policy leading towards war. Lord Aberdeen did not formally renounce his neutral policy of 1828, and he did not at this time advise the Queen to conclude any treaty for the defence of Turkey, nor ask the judgment of Parliament upon the expediency of taking such a course; but day after day, and week after week, the Cabinet-boxes came and went, and came and went again, and every day he passed his anxious and inevitable hour and a half at the Foreign Office; and at length it became apparent that the Government of which he was the chief had so acted that it could not with honour* recede from the duty of defending the home provinces of the Sultan against an unprovoked attack by Russia. The advice of a strong Power is highly Obligavalued, but it is valued for reasons which should make tracted by men chary of giving it. It is not commonly valued giving adfor the sake of its mere wisdom, but partly because it vice.

* So said by Lord Clarendon. 'Eastern Papers,' part i. VOL. I.

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tions con

the act of

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CHAP. is more or less a disclosure of policy, and still more because it tends to draw the advising State into a line of action corresponding with its counsels. England, by the voice of her Ambassador (approved from time to time by the Home Government *), had been advising a weak Power to resist a strong one. Counsels of such a kind could not but have a grave import.

in concert

with France, becomes

engaged

the Sultan's dominions.

The French Emperor had been more careful to keep himself free from engagements with the Porte; but he had long ago resolved to seize the coming occasion of acting in concert with England. And England, England now became bound. Within three days from Prince Mentschikoff's departure, France and England were beginning to concert resistance to to defend Russia; on the 26th of May the Sultan's refusal of the Russian ultimatum was warmly applauded by the English Government, and before the end of the month the Foreign Secretary instructed the English Ambassador that it was indispensable to 'take measures for the protection of the Sultan, and to aid His Highness in repelling any attack 'that might be made upon his territory;' and that the use of force was to be resorted to as a last and 'unavoidable resource for the protection of Turkey against an unprovoked attack, and in defence of her independence, which England,' as Lord Clarendon declared, was bound to maintain.'‡

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Lord Clarendon at the same time addressed a de

*Eastern Papers,' part i. p. 183. + 24th May. Ibid.

Ibid. P. 197.

P. 182.

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XI.

spatch to St Petersburg, setting forth with painful CHA P. clearness the difference between the words and the acts of the Czar, and indignantly requiring to know what was the object which Russia had in view, and

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in what manner, and to what extent, the dominions

of the Sultan and the tranquillity of Europe were 'threatened.'*

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England

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It was not by any one decisive act or promise, but by the tenor of expressions scattered through a long which series of Despatches, and by words used from time to became time in conversations, that England had taken upon herself the burthen of defending the Sultan against the Czar. Parliament was sitting when this moment- Slowness ous engagement was being contracted, and it may be English thought that there was room for questioning whether England in concert with France alone, and without first doing her utmost to obtain the concurrence of the other Powers, should good-humouredly take upon herself a duty which was rather European than English, and which tended to involve her in war. There were eloquent members of the Legislature who would have been willing to deprecate such a policy, and to moderate and confine its action; but apparently they did not understand how England was becoming entangled until about nine months afterwards, and, either from want of knowledge or want of promptitude, they lost the occasion for aiding the Crown with their counsels. Indeed, from first to last, the backwardness of the English Parliament in seizing upon the changeful phases of the diplomatic strife was

* 'Eastern Papers,' part i. p. 200.

XI.

CHAP. one of the main causes of the impending evil, and this was only one of the occasions on which it failed in the duty of opportune utterance. When the Despatch of the 31st of May was once on the road to Constantinople, England stood bound, and all that might be afterwards said about it would be criticism rather than counsel.

Powers intrusted to Lord Stratford.

So ended one phase of the ancient strife between the Emperor Nicholas and Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. Prince Mentschikoff, landing at Odessa, hastened to despatch to his master the best account he could give of the causes of his discomfiture, and of the evil skill of that Antichrist, in stately English form, whom Heaven was permitting for a while to triumph over the Czar and his Church.

Lord Stratford reaped the fruit of his toil and of the long-endured pain of encountering violence with moderation. All his acts were approved by the Government, and, so far as they were known and understood, by the bulk of his countrymen at home. And now when he paced the shady gardens, where often he had put upon his anger a difficult restraint, he could look with calm joy to the headland where the Straits opened out into the Euxine, for he knew that the Governments of the Western Powers, supporting his every word, and even overstepping his more sober policy, were coming forward to stand between Russia and her prey. The fleet at Malta was to be moved when and whither he chose; and, even to the length of war, the Admiral was ordered to obey any requisitions made to him by the Ambas

XI.

sador.* A few days later the Governments of Paris CHAP. and London, fearing the consequence of delay, ordered the fleets to move up at once to the neighbourhood of the Dardanelles. † The power to choose between peace and war went from out of the Courts of Paris and London and passed to Constantinople. Lord Stratford was worthy of this trust; for being firm, and supplied with full knowledge, and having power by his own mere ascendancy to enforce moderation upon the Turks, and to forbid panic, and even to keep down tumult, he was able to be very chary in the display of force, and to be more frugal than the Government at home in using or engaging the power of the English Queen. He remained on the ground. Still, as before, he kept down the home dangers which threatened the Ottoman State. Still, as before, he obliged the Turks to deserve the goodwill of Europe; but now, besides, with the arm of the flesh, and no longer with the mere fencing of words, he was there to defend their capital from the gathered rage of the Czar. In truth, at this time he bore much of the weight of empire. Intrusted with the chief prerogative of kings, and living all his time at Therapia, close over the gates of the Bosphorus, he seemed to stand guard against the North, and to answer for the safety of his charge.

*Eastern Papers,' part i. p. 199.

+ Pp. 210, 225.

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