Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/374

 342 THE ATTACK ON LORD JOHN RUSSELL. CHAP. XII. Neglect of this by the Rulers in Paris and London ; whilst also — and still in Vienna — they had at their side an Ally not yet plunged in the phy- sical strife, but acknowledging his obligations under the Treaty of the 2d of December, and not only willing, but even indeed almost eager, to fix the easy conditions on which he would take the field. Yet with these means of action at their command, the Rulers in Paris and Lon- don did not even make any endeavour to use the power they held ; and were so far from help- ing by statesmanship to ease the dead-lock on the Chersonese that they wilfully matched it by causing another dead-lock at Vienna. but not by De Llmys and Lord John. The First French and First English negotiators engaged in the Conference were, however, more alive than their Governments to the exigencies of the military predicament. M. Drouyn de Llmys had the merit of conceiving and maturing the plan which — unless forcing peace on the Czar — would effectuate a mighty diversion in favour of the hampered besiegers ; but Lord John also — always eager and strenuous — was not the man to stand idle, and see the Conference fail, without anxiously turning his thoughts to the armies besieging Sebastopol, and trying by a stroke of diplomacy to help them in what at the time seemed painfully diflicult straits. In the effort to achieve this great good, he found himself able to act in close, friendly concert with M. Drouyn de Llmys, and to agree with him in believing that for the objects they both had in view the