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 I THE WWi AGAINST liUSSIA. 151 efforts seemed to interest and to [)lease the lusti- est man of those days, for he watched them from over the Channel with approving smile, and began to declare, in his good-humoured, boisterous way, that so long as they should be suffered to have the handling of France, so long as they would execute for him his policy, so long as they would take care not to deceive liim, they ought to be encouraged, they ought to be made use of, they ought to have the shelter they wanted ; and, the Trenchmen agreeing to liis conditions, he was willing to level the barrier — he called it, perhaps, i'alse pride— which divided the Government of the Queen fioni the venturers of the 2d of December. In this thought, at the moment, he stood almost alone ; but he abided his time. At length he saw the spring of 1853, bringing with it grave peril to the Ottoman State. Then, throwing aside with a laugh some papers which belonged to the Home Office, be gave his strong shoulder to the levelling work. Under the weight of his touch the barrier fell. Thenceforth the hindrances that met him were but slight. As he from the first had willed it, so moved the two great nations of the West. CHAP. XL