Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/76

 46 CAUSES INVOLVING FRANCE AND ENGLAND CHAPTER V. CHAP. It has been seen that without treaty, and without ^' the advice or knowledge of Parliament — nay even, Bur-o^Tie psrhaps, without a distinct conception of what it and Colonel ^^^^g doinji — the English Government had been Ardent cle- o o thei^vaiit gradually contracting engagements which were almost equivalent to a defensive alliance with the Sultan. France, by virtue of her new understand- ing with England, had come under the same obli- gations ; and now that an invasion of the Ottoman Empire was threatened, it became necessary that the AVestern Powers should take measures for its defence. At first, however, their views were limited to the defence of the Sultan's home terri- tories, and especially those which gave the control of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus. Two Engineer officers — Colonel Ardent on the part of France, and Sir John Burgoyne on the part of England — were despatched to Turkey, with in- structions to report upon the best means of aiding the Sultan to defend his home dominions; and almost at the same time it was agreed between the two Western Powers that each of them should