Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/355

DEBATES IN THE CONFERENCE. 323 It is with the negotiations of 1855 that I have chap. to deal ; and in those, so far as I see, the prince L_ was not guilty of acting with falseness or undue craft; and his faults, as displayed in the Con- ference, were not even cognate to deceptiveness, being rather what seemed want of skill, want of mental resource, want of power to persuade or conciliate, want of even the much-needed power to keep his temper under control. A main part of his duty, of course, was to draw Austria to- wards the Czar, and detach her from the Western States ; yet the process of exchanging ideas with an Austrian negotiator was the very one that more than all others provoked his ill-humour. His subsequent career seems to prove that he needs must have had more capacity than he showed in the Conference-room. M. Drouyn de Lhuys was a man of ability m. Drouyn and very high personal character. Before trav- de Lhuya ' ersing the Continent on his way to Vienna he had gone to London, and there exchanged ideas with our Government. From the first he proved anxious to frame such conditions as might either lead to a peace or bring Austria into the war. Count Buol ably opened the Conference by a Debates m brief, compact speech well designed for its object, ence C ° nf "" and in words approved by all present, set forth the Pour Conditions imposed by the Allies, and (in principle) accepted by Eussia : — ' 1. The Protectorate exercised by Eussia over