Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/71

 BETWEEN THE CZAli AND THE SULTAN. 29 of several nations were gathered together at the chap. English headquarters in Toulouse ; and it was put IL into the heart of a man whose name is unknown but who spoke in the French tongue, to confer the loftiest title that ever was truthfully given to man. In a moment his words were seized as though they were words from on High, and the whole assembly with one voice saluted Wellington ' the Liberator of Europe.'* The loyal soldier shrank from the sound of a title not taken exact from the Gazette,^ but the voice which had spoken was nothing less than the voice of grateful nations. If the fame of England had grown to this proportion, it was be- cause she had faithfully obeyed the great Usage, and had come to be the main prop of the rights of others by firmly defending her own. The obligation imposed upon a great State by Thej.rac- , ■ tt • i in j>j 11 ■!_ i tical work- this Usage is not a heavy yoke, lor after all it does ingoftue no more than impel a Sovereign, by fresh motives and by larger sanctions, to be watchful in the pro- tection of his own interests. It quickens his sense of honour. It warns him that if he tamely stands witnessing a wrong which it is his interest and his duty to redress, he will not escape with the reckoning which awaits him in his own dis- honoured country, but that he will also be held guilty of a great European defection, and that his delinquency will be punished by the reproach of nations, by their scorn and mistrust, and at last, + Mr Larpent (who was present) says that Wellington 'Lowed confused,' and abruptly put an end to the scene.
 * Larpent's 'Private Journal,' vol. ii. p. 267.