Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/59

 BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. i? Africa. There were hardly more than two million chap Turks in Europe. These dominant Ottomans were. in an earlier stage of civilisation than most of the Christian States ; and it had happened that their Government, in straining to overtake and imitate the more cultivated nations, had broken down much of the strength which belongs to a warlike and simple people. Besides, amongst the Turks who clustered around the seat of government, a large proportion were men so spoilt by their con- tact with the metropolis of the Lower Empire, that, whilst the State suffered from the ignorance and simplicity of the governing race, it was suffer- ing also in an opposite way under the evils which are bred by corruption. Yet, notwithstanding the canker of Byzantian vice, and although they knew that they were lia- ble to be baffled by the methods of high organi- sation and ingenious contrivance now brought to bear upon the structure of armies, the Ottoman people still upheld the warlike spirit which be- longs to their race and to their faith. It is true that Russia, seizing a moment when the Sultan was without an ally,* and almost without an by a sentiment in favour of Greece— a sentiment culmiuatingat Navariuo — and was afterwards in no small measure governed by the personal feelings and strong wayward convictions of a Minister. He who became the head of the Government in 1828 was the foremost man then living in the world, and it could not but be that his vast ascendancy would curtail the power and alleviate the responsibility 01 every other member of the Cabinet. The Czar's Declaration of War was in April 1828, and at that time Lord Dudley and Ward was the Foreign VOL I. B
 * The accustomed policy of England had first been deranged