Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/366

 334 FAILING PROSPECTS OF PEACE. CHAP. Emperor, going out to the Crimea, would there ' command his forces in person. This measure- - for two sets of reasons, some based on his absence from France, others drawn from the idea of his presence at the head of an army — was regarded as one of ill omen. The young Czar desired peace ; but in the face of Opinion at home growing up more and more into strength since the death of his sire, he did not venture to purchase the blessing he sought by any too obvious surrender of what — inoppor- tunely — his envoys were pleased to call ' sovereign 1 rights.' Failure of On the 21st of April, Prince Gortchakoff de- negotia- clared in Conference the persistent refusal of the fcioiis Cttrricd on between Czar to limit his number of war-ships in the eients. Black Sea; and thereupon Lord John Eussell and M. Drouyn de Lhuys announcing that their instructions were exhausted, the negotiations directly maintained between Eussia and the other belligerents fell into a state of abeyance, though the actual close of the Conference was delayed during several weeks. "Writing to Lord Raglan from Vienna on the 23d of April, Lord John Russell said : — ' I hope ' you may succeed better in making war than I ' have in making peace. The Russians have ' rejected our propositions, and we would not ' hear of theirs. There remains one faint hope ' from a proposition to be made to our Govern- ' ments by Austria, and it is but a faint one, so