Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/56

 'J 6 CAUSES INVOLVING FIUNCR AND ENGLAND CHAP, frroup which composed what remained of Lord ' Aberdeen's Ministry when their strongest man yletdi*'"'"*'* ^^^^ ^^^'^ taken from them, and gathered them all together in its snpple folds. Some submitted to it for one reason, and some for another ; but the pressure of the Preuch Emperor was the cogent motive which governed the result. Still, this time, though the pressure was inflicted by the liand of a foreign sovereign, it was after all from the English people themselves that the Erench Emperor drew his strongest means of coercion. Their indignation at the disaster of Sinope made him sure that he could bring rnin on Lord Aber- deen's Administration by merely causing England to know that her Government was shrinking from the hostile scheme of action which he had proposed. The result, however, was that now, for the second time, Erance dictated to England the iise that she should make of her fleet, and by this time perhaps submission had become more easy than it was at first. The IMiliistry, Avith much openness, acknowledged that they were acting without the warrant of their own judgment, and in deference to the will of the Erench Emperor. ' The Government,' said Lord Clarendon, ' having ' announced that the recurrence of a disaster such ' as that of Sinope must be prevented, and that ' the command of the Black Sea must be secured, ' would have been content to have left the manner ' of executing those instructions to the discretion
 * of the Admirals, but they attach so much ini'