Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/179

 IN THE WAU AGAINST RUSSIA. 1-19 may come to be defemled, will extend to justify cnAi». the plan of deferring in naval transactions to the. ]Mnperor of the French, and consenting at his instance to make our fleet an instrument for the disturbance of the pending negotiations. In so far as concerns the general policy of the Government in these transactions, the merits of Lord Clarendon must be tried, of course, by the tests applicable to the whole body of the Cabinet; but it has been seen that, personally, he was not blind to the danger of allowing the Czar to con- tinue in his belief of England's insuperable peace- fulness ; and that his firm, wholesome words had already flown off towards St Petersburg, when unhappily they were arrested and revoked at the instance of Lord Aberdeen. Lord Claiendon's despatches were Avritten with so much of grace and vigour, and in a tone so fair and manly, that • any one who is familiar with them will under- stand something of the process by which the Prime jNliuister was from time to time forced into what may be called 'a one b}^ one approval' of these able writings, and in that way hindered from finding the happy moment in which he could establish his divergence from the govern- ins minds of the Cabinet, and effect his retreat from office. Lookinf? back upon the troubles which ended in The voii- ,, „ , . , n , tinnsubi.-h the outbreak of war, one sees the nations at first govum.a evcuU. swaying backward and forward like a throng so vast as to be helpless, but afterwards fidling slow- ly into warlike array. And M'hen one begins to