Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/376

 344 RESOLVE OF THE ENGLISH CABINET. CHAP. XII. Austrian ultimatum, would force a peace on the Czar; whilst Count Buol, with perhaps better means of forming a judgment, was rather dis- posed to conclude that the Czar would hold out, and bring Austria into the war ; * but in one way or other the plan could not fail to take effect with great cogency. If, instead of displaying this cogency, the mea- sure had really been one which people under- standing its import could honestly censure for weakness or undue concession to the enemy, it would not have found any favour with M. Drouyn de Lhuys, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, and would never have been harboured a moment in the mind of Lord John Eussell. Lord John, as all knew in his day, was a man of great intrepidity, was even from time to time rash, and prone to spring into action under simply spontaneous impulses that often enraged and dis- tracted the anxious drill-sergeants of ' Party,' yet endeared him to those of our people who prefer, after all, a true man to any disciplined aggregate. He was capable of now and then coming to a bold, abrupt, hasty decision not duly concerted with men whose opinions he ought to have weighed; but for courage, for high public spirit, no states- man in Europe surpassed him. Reception When Lord John returned to England on the byLoid Pat Sunday, the 29th of April, he found his colleagues cabinet; wholly un willing to resume the negotiations for peace ; and at a Cabinet held the next day, they De Lhuys. Lord John Rusaell.
 * Eastern Papers, No. xv. p. 30.