Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/121

 BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. 79 CHAPTER VI. Now. therefore, it became needful for the Emperor chap. . VI. Nicholas to endeavour to divine the temper in which the other great Powers of Europe would be inclined to regard his intended pressure upon the Sultan, and the eventual catastrophe which, even if he should wish it, he might soon be unable to avert. It was of deep moment to him to know what help or acquiescence he might reckon upon, and what hostility he might have to encounter, if he should be called upon to take part in regulating the collapse of the Turkish Empire, and control- ling the arrangements which were to follow. He looked around. The policy of one of the Position of,. Austria in great States of Europe was bent out of its true regard to ° L _ Turkey at course, and in others there were signs of weak the begin- ' _° _ uiug oi 1S63 purpose. The power most deeply interested in preventing the dismemberment of European Tur- key had already determined to press upon the Sultan an unjust and offensive demand; and although the statesmen of Vienna might have re- solved in their own minds to stop short at some prescribed stage of the contemplated hostilities, it