Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/161

 BETWEEN THE CZAll AND THE SULTAN. 119 listened to his spoken words, or whether they chap. were only bystanders caught and fascinated by the '_ grace of his presence, they could scarcely help think- ing that if the English nation was to be maintain- ed in peace or drawn into war by the will of a single mortal, there was no man who looked so worthy to fix its destiny as Sir Stratford Canning. He had faults which made him an imperfect Christian, for his temper was fierce, and his asser- tion of self was so closely involved in his conflicts that he followed up his opinions with his feelings, and with the whole strength of his imperious na- ture. But his fierce temper, being always under control when purposes of State so required, was far from being an infirmity, and was rather a weapon of exceeding sharpness, for it was so wielded by him as to have more tendency to cause dread and surrender than to generate resistance. Then, too, every judgment which he pronounced was en- folded in words so complete as to exclude the idea that it could ever be varied, and to convey, there- fore, the idea of duration. As though yielding to fate itself, the Turkish mind used to bend and fall down before him. But the counsels which Sir Stratford Canning- had been accustomed to tender to the Sultan's Ministers, however wholesome they might be, were often very irksome to hear, and very difficult to adopt. Indeed it might be questioned whether his Turkish policy could be made to consist with the principle on which the Ottoman system was based. He sought to make the Ottoman rule