Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/40

 10 CAUSKS INVOLVING FRANCE AND ENGLAND CHAP, from him, Lord Clarendon on the same day ad- ^' dressed a despatch to Lord Stratford, saying, dered°u"-.to ' Your Excellency is therefore instructed to send consuuti- . f-Q,. ^^ijg British fleet to Constantinople' *—tlnis depriving the Ambassador of the discretion which had hitherto been nsed -with singular care and wisdom, and with great advantage to the public service. What makes the course of the English w.intof Government the more extraordinary is, that they discretion"' ruslicd iuto the hostile policy which is involved thL"rdoption in this stringent order to Lord Stratford without measure. having received any despatch of their own from Constantinople, and without any knowledge of the events which had been occuring except what was conveyed by a telegraphic message from a French Ambassador to his own Government. If the English INIinisters had paused five days,-f they would have received Lord Stratford's calm de- spatch, showing that he looked with more plea- sure than alarm upon the petition of the theo- logical students, and that he knew how to avail himself of force without using violence. If they had waited four days more,J they would have found that the hour was at hand Mhen the ' daneUes by Admiral Duiulas's squadron, and at llie same time ' to take precautious adequate to the appoaraure of danger, 1 ' did not form my ojiinion in tliis rcsjiect without taking the ' opinion of Her ]Iajesty's senior oiiioer in command in the ' I'.osphorus.' Cth October 1853. Ibid. p. 188. + i.e., till 28th September. Ibid. ]>. 121. t i.e., till 2d October. Ibid. p. Vll.
 * 'Eastern Papers,' jiart ii. p. IIO.