European convulsion occurred—the Russo-Turkish War—we experienced the unwonted excitement of following the campaign from day to day. It was a time of intense excitement in our remote regions To us, as to most Englishmen, since the Crimean War, Russia, with her Asiatic armies and North Pacific squadron, loomed as the natural enemy of the British Empire.[1] For years past, to such a pitch of overwrought excitement had we brought ourselves, that rarely did a Russian cruiser enter one of our harbours, but we attributed the visit to some deep-laid treacherous design. The unwelcome visitor had come in order to take soundings, to map down the position of our ineffective defences, and to note where his shells would most effectively burst in our streets. I am not justifying, but merely recording, what may often have been most unwarranted, and perhaps ignoble, suspicions. But this being the prevailing colonial sentiment with regard to Russia, it is not difficult to imagine how eagerly we followed the struggle between Muscovite and Mussul-
- ↑ I have lived long enough to think that this is the greatest condemnation of the policy of that war into which we were mainly led by the restless artifices of Napoleon iii., who also by his timidity prevented us from reaping any advantages from our nominal success.
