Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/397

Rh was acting in concert with her Allies assembled chap. at Vienna, and to declare, in another limb of the same sentence, that she was 'united' with one of them. Unhappily, the error was not an error of words. The Speech accurately described the strange policy which our Government had adopted; for it was strictly true that, in the midst of a perfect concord between the four great Powers, the English Cabinet had been drawn into a separate union with France, and into an union of such a kind as to require the distinguishing phrase which disclosed the new league to Europe.

This Speech from the Throne may be regarded as marking the point where the roads of policy branched off. By the one road, England, moving to war in company with the rest of the four Powers, off. might insure a peaceful repression of the outrage which was disturbing Europe; by the other, she might also enforce the right, but, joined with the French Emperor, and parted from the rest of the four Powers, she would reach it bypassing through war. The Cabinet of Lord Aberdeen desired peace, and not war; but seeing dimly, they took the adventurous path. They so little knew whither they were going that they made no preparation for war.