Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/53

 BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. 11 enjoy a constitutional form of government, the chap. policy of the State was always liable to be de- L__ ranged by the tremulous hand of the King ; and the anticipation of finding weakness in this quarter was one of the causes which led the Czar to defy the judgment of Europe. In the Ottoman dominions Abdul Medjid was JggJ* accustomed to leave the administration of foreign *££& affairs to responsible ministers; and it will be thesmun. seen that this wholesome method of reigning gave the Turkish Government a great advantage over the diplomacy of other Continental States. Speaking loosely, observers might say that the gJ^J* 1 conduct of public business in England was a task ggj^ entrusted to ministers enjoying the confidence of »*£j«. Parliament ; but the rule, if rule we may call it, g*jf was subject to one huge exception, and besides, affair8 - to several qualifying conditions which clogged the authority wielded by some of our State Depart- ments* Amongst the Departments thus sub- jected to Royal interference the Foreign Office was one ; and there, besides maintaining a right to see important despatches, the Crown was ac- customed to insist that it must have an oppor- tunity of either consenting or refusing consent to every resolve of great moment. The Crown, it is true, understood that, unless at the cost of having to change the Administration, and to change it under perilous conditions, no refusal to adopt a Those habitually subjected to Royal interference were the Foreign Office and the Department of Woods and Works.
 * The 'huge exception* was of course the Horse Guards.