Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/396

 351 ORIGIN OF THE WAR OF 1853 CHAP. XV. Failure of Parliament to under- stand the real import of the dis- closure. The Queen's Speech, August 1S53. ' Franca were agreed, that they continued to ' follow the same policy, and that they had the ' most perfect confidence in each other.' These words were enough to show any one used to foreign affairs that England was advancing with France into an adventurous policy, and then (though even then they were dangerously late) Members of Parliament might have stood forward with some hope of being able to check their country in her smooth descent from peace to war. They lost the occasion ; it did not recur.* At the close of the session, the Queen's Speech announced to Europe ' that the Emperor of the ' French had united with Her Majesty in earnest ' endeavours to reconcile differences, the contin- ' nance of which might involve Europe in war ; ' and she declared that, acting in concert with ' her Allies, and relying on the exertions of the ' Conference then assembled at Vienna, Her ' Majesty had good reason to hope that an hon- ' ourable arrangement would speedily be accom- ' plished.' -f- It would seem, at first sight, that this language had been occasioned by some accidental displace- ment of words ; and that it could not have been intended for the Queen of England to say that she tion of Mr Theodore Martin to this period. What were the ' minutes ' written and what the steps taken by the Prince Con- sort at that cardinal time? t 129 Hansard, p. 1826. Here again, when the policy of the Cabinet was to be indicated in so formal a document as the Queen's Speech, 1 invite the attention of Mr Theodore Martin.
 * For the purpose indicated ante, p. 14, I invite the atten-