Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/273

 Aberdeen said to Mr. Cobden that it was the press that prevented him from keeping the peace, he is not to be supposed to have communicated to Mr. Cobden all that he knew respecting the origin of the war. The difficulty arising from Count Nesselrode's despatch as to the sense attached by Russia to the Vienna Note, after it had been accepted by all parties except Turkey—a sense different from that in which it had been accepted by the other Powers, "might," says the writer before quoted, "have been overcome by further negotiation, but the cry went forth that Russia had tried to deceive us, and the indignation roused by Russia's supposed treachery made war inevitable." I need not repeat the words before quoted, but what is the conclusion that follows from all this? By "the cry went forth" is meant what Lord Aberdeen said to Mr. Cobden that it was the press that prevented Lord Aberdeen from keeping the peace. Who set on the press? It would be strange if it should appear that two of the advocates of Sir W. E. Watkins's Channel Tunnel were one intentionally the other unintentionally among the chief promoters of the Crimean War.