Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/130

 88 ORIGIN OF THE WAR OF li>53 chap, be seen, was a main link in the chain of causes '__ which was destined to draw the Czar into war, and bring him in misery to the grave. But if there was a phantasy in vogue which seemed likely to make England acquiesce in transactions adverse to her accustomed policy in the East, there were other counsels atloat which, although they were based on very different views, seemed to tend in the same direction, for some of our countrymen were beginning to perceive that the restoration of a Bonapartist Empire in France would bring back with it the traditions and the predatory schemes of the First Napoleon. These advisers were unwilling that the elements of the great alliance, which, thirty-eight years before, had delivered Europe from its thraldom, should now be cast asunder for the mere sake of giving a better effect to the policy which the Foreign Office was accustomed to follow upon the Eastern Question. And in truth this same Eastern policy, though held by almost all responsible statesmen, was not so universally received in England as to go altogether unchallenged. The notion of Eng- land's standing still and suffering the Turks to be driven from Europe was not deemed so preposter- ous as to be unworthy of being put forward by men commanding great means of persuasion; and before the new year was far advanced, the Em- peror Nicholas had means of knowing that the old English policy of averting the dismemberment of Turkey would be gravely questioned, and brought in an effective way to the test of printed discus-