CHAP. ordinated the vast interests of the State to the mere II.

Of England.

safety and welfare of its ruler. The legislative
power and the control of the supplies were in the
hands of an Assembly freely elected; and both in
the Chamber and in print men enjoyed the right of
free speech. Also the executive power rested law-
fully in the hands of ministers responsible to Parlia-
ment; and therefore, although the President, as will
be seen, could do acts leading to mischief and danger,
he could not bring France to a rupture with a foreign
State unless war were really demanded by the in-
terests or by the honour, or at least by the passions,
of the country.
And the people being peacefully
inclined, and the interests and the honour of the
country being carefully respected by all foreign States,
France was not at that time a source of disturbance
to Europe.

Next to Austria, England was of all the great Powers the one most accustomed to insist upon the maintenance of the Ottoman Empire. It might be a complex task to prove that the rule of the English in Hindostan is connected with the stability of the Sultan's dominions in a far distant region of the world; but whether the theory of this curious. inter-dependence be sound or merely fanciful, it is certain that the conquest of the shores of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles by one of the great Continental Powers would straiten the range of England's authority in the world, and, even if it did not do her harm of a positive kind, would relatively lessen her strength. The effect, too, of Russia's

II.

becoming a Mediterranean Power could not be so CHAP. clearly foreseen and computed as not to be a fitting subject of care to English statesmen. The people at large were not accustomed to turn their minds in this direction; but the 'Eastern Question,' as it was called, had become consecrated by its descent through a great lineage of Statesmen; and the traditions of the Foreign Office were reinforced by English travellers for these men, going to Eastern countries in early life, and becoming charmed with their glimpse of the grand, simple, violent world that they had read of in their Bibles, used soon to grow interested in the diplomatic strife always going on at Constantinople; and then coming home, they brought back with their chibouques and their scymitars a zeal for the cause of Turkey which did not fail to find utterance in Parliament. In process of time the accumulated counsels of these travellers, coming in aid of diplomatists and statesmen, put straight the deflection which had been caused by a romantic sympathy with the Greek insurgents; and it may be said that after the year 1833 the Eastern policy of England was brought back into its ancient channel.

Abroad no one doubted that the maintenance of the Sultan's authority at Constantinople was of high concern to England; and indeed the bearing of the Eastern question upon English interests seemed even more clear and obvious to foreigners than to the bulk of our countrymen at home. At this time Lord John Russell was the Prime Minister; and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs was Lord

II.

CHAP. Palmerston. It is true that during the last Russian invasion of Turkey in 1828, Lord Palmerston, then out of office, had taken part with Russia; but from the period of the Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi in 1833 he had not swerved from the traditions of the Foreign Office; and, upon the whole, there was no fair ground for believing that under his counsels, and under the sanction of the then Prime Minister, Lord Aberdeen's acquiescent policy of 1829 would again be followed by England. It is true that strange doctrines were afloat; but after 1833 the Government had not forgotten that England was one of the great Powers of Europe, and had never confessed, by any unpardonable inaction, that this height and standing in the world gave their country mere rank and celebrity without corresponding duties. Upon the whole, there was not at this time any sound reason for doubting that England would pursue her accustomed policy with due resolution. Thus Europe was in repose; for, in general, when the world believes that England will be firm, there is peace; it is the hope of her proving weak or irresolute which tends to breed war.

Of the lesser

States of
Europe.

Of the lesser States of Europe there were some which, in the event of a war, might lean towards Russia, and more which would lean against her: and the divided opinion of the minor Courts of Germany might be reckoned upon by the Czar as tending to hamper the action of the leading States ; but, upon the whole, the interests of the lesser Powers of Europe, and the means of action at their

II.

command, were not of such a kind as to exert much CHAP. weight in retarding or accelerating Russian schemes of encroachment upon Turkey.

This was the quiet aspect of Europe in relation to the Eastern question, when an ancient quarrel between the monks of the Greek and the Latin Churches in Palestine began to extend to laymen and politicians, and even at last to endanger the peace of the world.

III.

Holy

shrines.

CHAPTER III.

CHAP. THE mystery of holy shrines lies deep in human nature. For, however the more spiritual minds may be able to rise and soar, the common man during his mortal career is tethered to the globe that is his appointed dwelling-place; and the more his affections are pure and holy, the more they seem to blend with the outward and visible world. Poets, bringing the gifts of mind to bear upon human feelings, have surrounded the image of love with myriads of their dazzling fancies; but it has been said that in every country, when a peasant speaks of his deep love, he always says the same thing. He always utters the dear name, and then only says that he worships 'the ground she treads.' It seems that where she who holds the spell of his life once touched the earthwhere the hills and the wooded glen and the pebbly banks of the stream have in them the enchanting quality that they were seen by him and by her when they were together there always his memory will cling; and it is in vain that space intervenes, for imagination, transcendent and strong of flight, can waft him from lands far away till he lights upon