Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/101

 IX THE "WAR AGAINST RUSSIA. 71 staia upon their names. How came it that they chap. sank, and were able to make no good stand for the !_ cause they loved so well ? The answer is simple. Upon the question of peace or war (the very Reasons f. 1-1 ,1 n why they question upon which more tlian any other a man wereai.ie might well desire to make his counsels tell) these uo stand. two gifted men had forfeited their hold upon the ear of the country. They had forfeited it by their Ibrmer want of moderation. It was not by any intemperate words upon the question of this war with Russia that they had shut themselves out from the counsels of the nation ; but in former years they had adopted and put forward, in their strenuous way, some of the more extravagant doctrines of the Peace Party. In times when no war was in question, they had run down the practice of M'ar in terms so broad and indiscrimi- nate that they were understood to commit them- selves to a disapproval of all wars not strictly defensive, and to decline to treat as defensive those wars which, although not waged against an actual invader of the Queen's dominions, might still be undertaken by England in the perform- ance of a European duty, or for the purpose of checking the undue ascendancy of another Power. Of course, the knowledge that they held doctrines of this wide sort disqualified them from arguing with any effect against the war then impending. A man cannot have weight as an opponent of any particular war if he is one who is known to he against almost all war. It is vain for him to offer