Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/243

 BETWEEN THE CZAU AND THE SULTAX. 201 men and women which presented itself to his oh.-ap-. imagination under the name of 'the people' was -ft*- _, the same sort of thing as the crowd which went to hear a fierce speech against princes, and states- men, and parliaments, and armies, and navies, and taxes. He also thought that the cheers which this crowd uttered at the end of sentences de- nouncing war, were proof of a settled determination to prevent any Government from ever again breaking the peace without stringent reasons. A deeper knowledge would have taught him that what the crowd applauded was not the mere doctrine, but the pure racy strenuous English, and the animating ferocity of the speaker: for, in speeches of this kind, praises of peace were always blended with rough attacks upon public men ; and therefore, to a shallow observer, the hearers might seem to be lifting up their voices for peace and goodwill among men, when in reality they were only acknowledging the pleasantness of the sensation which is produced by hearing good invective. A prince of the Paissian Emperor's breed might have known that, even if it be given in praise or in joy, the 'hurrah' of a northern people has in it a sound of conflict. What it negatives and forbids is peace and rest. His battalions were destined to hear it some day, to know its import, and to blend it long afterwards with recollections of mist and slaughter, and the breaking strength of Pussia. But to the mind of the Czar at this time, the cheering which greeted the thin phantom of the 'Peace Party' imported