Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/52

 22 CAUSES INVOLVING FRANCK AND ENGLAND CHAP. IL First deci- siun of the English Cabinet in regard to Siuope. as I have already said, that the destruction of the Turkish squadron at Sinope was not a thing done in stealth. ]>at the jjeople of England, not know- ing all this at first, and hearing nothing of the Kussian fleet until they heard of the ravage and slaughter of Sinope, imagined that the blow had come sudden as the knife of an assassin. They ^vere too angry to be able to look upon the question in a spirit of cold justice. It was therefore an easy task to turn all attention from the faults of public functionaries and fasten it upon a larger scheme of vengeance. Ministers, Ambassadors, and Admirals, went free, and in a spirit of honest, inaccurate justice, the Emperor Nicholas was marked for sacrifice. This time, it was his fate to be condemned on wrong grounds ; but his sins against Europe had been giiev- ous, and the rough dispensations of the tribunal which people call 'opinion' have often enough determined that a man who has been guilty of one crime shall be made to suffer for another. There were few men in England who doubted that the onslaught of Sinope was a treacherous deed. When first dealing with the question that had been raised by this naval attack on the Turks, our Government took it for granted that the fleets of the Western Powers would forthwith enter the Euxine, and considered that the in- structions addressed to the English Admiral on the 8th of October would be still a sufficient guide, if they were now reinforced by enjoining