Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/169

BETWEEN THE CZAK AND THE SULTAN. 127 a messenger at once to Malta, requesting the chap. Admiral to hold himself in readiness ; hut Lord 1. Stratford was not to direct him to approach the Dardanelles without positive instructions from the Government at home. Thus, so far as concerned the power of turning for aid to physical force, the Ambassador went out poorly armed ; but he was destined to have an opportunity of showing that a slender authority in the hands of a skilled diplomatist may be more formidable than the absolute control of great armaments entrusted to a less able statesman. Lord Stratford was licensed to do no more than send a message to an Admiral, advising him to be ready to go to sea ; and, slight as this power was, he never exhausted it; yet, as will be seen, he so wielded the instruction which entrusted it to him as to be able to establish a great calm in the Divan at a moment when Prince Mentschikoff was violently pressing upon its fears, with a fleet awaiting his orders, and an army of 140,000 men.