Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/17

 PRRFACK. Xi the freak of 'leaving the Turks to destruction,' tlu! Englisli multitude had highly approved another and less bloody expedient. They proposed in effect that the Turks should be scolded out of their country, some thinking that the victorious tongues should drive off all the Ottomans bodily, others saying with a thought- ful air of moderation that, if all the rulers, high and low, were extirpated, the Turks of private life might perhaps be allowed to remain. Whether in a spirit of grim cynicism, or to show men the consequences of their interposition, our Piime Minister heard the prayer of his people, consented to try their expedient, and sent England into the Council of assembled Europe with free scope to use her tongue, but prevented from even seeming to be potentially belligerent by the staring Neutrality badge which our citizens had afSixed to her shoulder. The Turks, see- ing the badge, declined to l^e talked out of Europe ; and, whatever be the effect of this resolve upon their own destinies, they have at all events maintained for the moment that ' independence of the Ottoman ' Empire ' which our statesmen were accustomed to prize and to cherish with infinite care, and have done this too at a time when the pressure which tried their firmness was in part applied by Lord Salisbury.* As a lever for wresting from the Sultan the uoveru- that the Crimean war was waged. See ' Invasion of the Crimea,' vol. i. cap. xvii. The integrity of the empire was effectually vindi- cated by Austrin.
 * It was distinctly for the ' independence ' of the Ottoman Empire