Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/56

 hussia. 14 ORIGIN OF THE WAK OF 1853 England went 'right or went wrong in the course we shall have to trace, she was guided at each step by ministers whom the House of Commons approved, rower of It was believed that the Emperor Nicholas numbered almost a million of men under arms ; and of these a main part were brave, steady, obedient soldiers. Gathering from time to time great bodies of troops upon his western frontier, he caused the minds of men in the neighbouring States to be weighed down with a sense of his strength. Moreover, he was served by a diplom- acy of the busy sort, always labouring to make the world hear of Itussia and to acknowledge her might ; and being united by family ties with some of the reigning Houses of Germany, he was able to have it believed that his favour might be of use to the courtiers and even sometimes to the statesmen of Central Europe. Down to the giving of trinkets and ribbons, he was not forgetful. His power was great ; and when the troubles of 1843 broke out, the broad foundation of his authority was more than ever manifested ; for, surrounded by sixty millions of subjects whose loyalty was hardly short of wor- ship, he seemed to stand free and aloof from the panic which was overturning the thrones of the Western Continent, and to look down upon the Feeling this, I shall aid Mr Theodore Martin in his endeavour to sustain the political reputation of H.R.H. by specially call- ing attention in foot-notes to the several periods of crisis when a little good, opportune warning might have had an unspeak- able value.