Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/117

 IX THE WAR AGAINST RUSSIA. 87 troops of the Czar from the Principalities ; and in en Ar. • VIII order to withstand the vengeance which this step 1. might provoke, Austria and Prussia together stood leagued. By the Protocol of the 23d of May, the four Powers declared that both the Anglo-French treaty and the Austro-Prussian treaty bound the parties, in the relative situations to which they applied, to secure the same common object — namely, the evacuation of the Principalities and the integrity of the Ottoman Empire.* Now the mind and the solemn determination of Austria and Prussia being such as are shown by the Protocol of the 9th and the treaty of the 20th April, where was there such a difference of opinion — where was there even such a shadow of a difference — as to justify the Western States in pushing forward and separating themselves from the rest of the four Powers ? The avowed prin- ciples and objects of the four Powers were ex- actly the same. If they had acted together, the very weight of their power would have given them an almost judicial authorit}', and would have enabled them to enforce the cause of right without wounding the pride of the disturber, and without inflicting war upon Europe. Was Austria backward ? Was she so little prone to action that it was necessary for the Western Powers to move to the front and fight her battles for her? The reverse is the truth. The Western Powers, indeed, were inore impatient
 * ' Eastern Papers,' part is. p. 1.