Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/340

 308 THE RELATIONS OF AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA chap, war with Russia was a step ' supported by Aus- XII ' tria and Prussia as being founded in right.' • itsanoma- It was anomalous of course that four Powers aeter? "" should be allied — for allied they were — against Russia, when two of them only as yet had come to be at war with the Czar, the other two simply announcing that they ' supported,' and approved the course taken by their more adventurous friends. One can hardly deny that the part thus played before Europe by the two applaud- ing States had an aspect in some degree comic ; for, though both of them owned mighty armies, and though both were more closely aggrieved by the lawless act of the Czar than either of the Western Powers, they, whilst not themselves taking up arms, declared instead with solemnity — as though they were G-rotius and Puffendorf ! — that the conflict undertaken by others, that is, by England and Prance, was what teachers call ' a just war.' Still, in favour of this quaint proceeding there really existed some reasons which obtained and deserved no small weight ; for statesmen per- ceived that by dispensing — at least for a while — with the armed intervention of Austria and Prussia they might narrow the area of the war, thus postponing, or even indeed altogether avert- ing, that evil which the phrase of the time used to indicate as ' a general conflagration in Europe ; ' 1854 between Austria and Prussia. See ante, vol. ii. chap, viii., and the Papers in the Appendix to that volume.
 * Protocol of the 9th of April 1854. Treaty of 20th April