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 82 ORIGIN OF THE WAR OF 1853 chap, to join with Russia in trying to bring about the • dismemberment of the Turkish Empire, and to arrange the distribution of the spoil ; for the great extension which France had given of late to her navy, rendered views of this kind less chimerical than they were at the time of the secret Articles of Tilsit.* But, on the other hand, it was the t French Government which had provoked the religious excitement under which Nicholas was labouring ; and, although it is believed that when his troubles increased upon him, the Czar after- wards made overtures to France, it would seem that in the beginning of 1853 he was too angry and too scornful towards the French Emperor to be able to harbour the thought of making him Iris ally. Of the danger lest France should sud- denly adopt a conservative policy, and undertake to resist his arrangements in the East of Europe, the Emperor Nicholas made light, for he had resolved at this time not to place himself in con- flict with England; and the operations of any Western Power in Turkey being dependent upon sea-communications, he did not think it to be within the wide compass of possible events that France, single-handed and without the alliance of her maritime neighbour, would or could obstruct him in the Levant. 'He cared,' he said, 'very not myself know the fact, that Louis Napoleou made early overtures to the Czar for what one may call a predatory alii, ance, and that the rebuff then inflicted upon him by Nicho- las preceded his determination to seek a close alliance with England.
 * There is ground, I understand, for believing, though I do