Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/65

 BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. 23 but the duties of States in this respect are very chap far from being coextensive with their rights. In _ Europe, all States except the five great Powers are exempt from the duty of watching over the general safety;* and even a State which is one of the five great Powers is not practically under an obligation to sustain the cause of justice unless its perception of the wrong is reinforced by a sense of its own interests. Moreover, no State, unless it be com- bating for its very life, can be expected to engage in a war without a fair prospect of success. But when the three circumstances are present — when a wrong is being done against any State great or small, when that wrong in its present or ulterior consequences happens to be injurious to one of t he five great Powers, and, finally, when the great Power so injured is competent to wage war with fair hopes — then Europe is accustomed to expect that the great Power which is sustaining the hurt will be enlivened by the smart of the wound, and for its own sake, as well as for the public weal, will be ready to come forward in arms, or to labour for the formation of such leagues as may be needed for upholding the cause of justice. If a Power fails in this duty to itself and to Europe, it suddenly becomes lowered in the opinion of mankind ; and happily there is no historic lesson more true than that which teaches all rulers that a moral degradation of this sort is speedily followed by disasters of such a kind as to be capable of to the "live."
 * The above was published before, iu 1863, Italy had acceded