Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/380

 333 ORIGIN OF THE WAR OF 1S53 CHAP. XIV. Dangers threatening the new Emperor and his associates. Motives governing the foreign policy of France. commands the services of all his subjects. In France, for the most part, the gentlemen of the country resolved to stand aloof from the Govern- ment, and not only declined to vouchsafe their society to the new occupant of the Tuileries, but even looked cold upon any stray person of their own station who suffered himself to he tempted thither by money. They were determined to abide their time, and in the meanwhile to do nothing which would make it inconsistent for them, as soon as it suited their policy, to take an opportunity of laying cruel hands on the new Emperor and his associates. It was obvious that, because of the instinct which makes creatures cling to life, a monarch thus kept always standing on the very edge of a horrible fate, but still having for the time in his hands the engine of the State, would be driven by the very law of his being to make use of the forces of the nation as means of safety for himself and his comrades ; and that to that one end, not only the operations of the Home Government, but even the foreign policy of the country, would be steadily aimed. And so it happened. After the 2d December in the year 1851, the foreign policy of France was used for a prop to prop the throne which Morny and his friends had built up. Therefore, although I have dwelt awhile upon a singular passage in the domestic history of France, I have not digressed. The origin of the war with Russia could not be traced without showing what was the foreign policy of France at