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 IN THE WAR AGAINST IIUSSIA. 113 every sign which tends to give the wrong-doer a chap. hope of her acquiescence. _ . This duty was not understood by the more ard- ent friends of peace ; and they imagined that they would serve their cause by entreating England to abstain from every conflict which did not menace her own shores — nay, even by permitting them- selves to vow and declare that this was the policy truly loved by the English race. Moreover, by blending their praises of peace with fierce invec- tive against public men, they easily drew applause from assembled multitudes, and so caused the foreigner to believe that they really spoke the voice of a whole people, or at all events of great masses, and that England was no longer a Power which would interfere with spoliation in Europe. The fatal eflect which this belief produced upon the peace of Europe has been shown. But the evil produced by the excesses of the Peace Party did not end there. It is the nature of excesses to beget excesses of strange complexion ; and just as a too rigid sanctity has always been followed by a too scandalous profligacy, so, by the law of reaction, the doctrines of the Peace Party tended to bring into violent life that keen warlike spirit which soon became one of the main obstacles to the restora- tion of tranquillity. Therefore England, it must 1)6 acknowledged, did much to bring on the war ; first, by the want of moderation and prudence with which she seemed to declare her attachment to the cause of peace — and afterwards by the exceed- injj eagerness with which she coveted the strife.