Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/402

 3G0 ORIGIN OF THE AVAR OF 1853 CHAP. XVI. and would have refused to be drawn into measures which were destined to be continually undoing the pacific work of the diplomatists assembled at Vienna. But partnership with the midnight associates of the 2d of December was a heavy yoke. With all his heart and soul Lord Aberdeen desired the tranquillity of Europe; but he had suffered his Cabinet to enter into close friendly engagements with one to whom the tranquillity of Europe por- tended jail, and ill-usage, and death. The French Emperor had consented to engage France in an English policy ; and he thought he had a right to insist that England should pay the price, and help to give him the means of such signal action in Europe as might drive away men's thoughts from the hour when the Parliament of France had been thrown into the felons' van. The object at which the French Emperor was aiming stands clear enough to the sight; but at this time the scheme of action by which he sought to attain his ends was ambiguous. In general, men are prone to find out consistency in the acts of rulers, and to imagine that numberless acts, appearing to have different aspects, are the result of one steady design; but those who love truth better than symmetry will be able to believe that much of the conduct of the French Emperor was rather the effect of clashing purposes than of duplicity. There are philosophers who imagine that the human mind (corresponding in that re- spect with the brain) has a dual action, and that