Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/394

 352 ORIGIN OF THE WAR OF 1S53 chap, and they represent but too faithfully what the XV. , English Government did. Every State is entitled to regard a foreign nation as represented by its Government. The principle is a sound one ; but it must be owned that by this alliance the theory was pushed to an ugly conclusion. What happened was the like of this : — There came to us five men heavily laden with treasure, but looking hurried and anxious. They wanted to speak to us. Upon inquiring who they were, and comparing their answers with our other means of knowing the truth, we found that two of them bore names resulting in the usual way from marriages and baptisms,* and that the other three had been going by names which they had chosen for the sake of euphony. They said that suddenly they had become so struck with the soundness of our old-fashioned opinions, that they asked nothing better than to be suffered to devote the immense resources which they could command to the attainment of the object which we had always desired. All they wanted, in return, was that, in pursuing our own object side by side with them, we would promise not to suffer ourselves to be clogged by our old scruples against breaches of the peace ; that we would admit them to our intimacy, allowing our- selves to be much seen with them in public ; and that, in order to make our favour the more signal, we would consent to turn aside a little from our old friends : that was all. With regard to the
 * These two were Prince Louis Bonaparte and Maupas.