Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/129

 IN THE WAR AGAINST RUSSIA. 99 ing himself to be embarrassed by what men call a chap. 'comprehensive' view of our foreign policy; and '. although it was no doubt his concentrative habit of mind and his stirring temperament which brought him into this course of action, he was much supported in it by the people at liome; for when no enterprise is on foot, the bulk of the English are prone to be careless of the friendship of foreign States, and are often much pleased when they are told that by reason of the activity of their Foreign Secretary they are without an ally in Europe. Other statesmen had been accustomed to tliink that the principle which ought in general to determine the closeness of our relations with foreign States was * community of interests ; ' and that in proportion as this principle was departed from under the varied impulses of philanthropy or other like motives, disturbance, isolation, and danger would follow ; but Lord Palmerston had never suffered this maxim to interfere with any special object which he might chance to have in hand at the moment, nor even with his desire to spread abroad the blessings of constitutional government. As long as Lord Grey was at the head of the Government, the energy of the Foreign Office was kept down ; and even after the first five years of Lord jMelbourne's Administration, the disruption towards which it was tending had made so little way, that when in 1840 the Ottoman Empire was threatened with ruin by France and her Egyptian