Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/19

A PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION. XV fraternity will have do field of action before them : and on the other hand, if a campaign shall have once been begun in great earnest, there is some danger of their being invited to express the enthusiasm they feel by the eloquence of their money contributions, but in other respects to stand down, and retire from public life. For the moment, however, ' young Mus- 'covy' has a real, though precarious existence, and must not be left out of account in negotiating with the Czar's representative. I have striven to make it plain that the impulse which has been stirring the Russian people was for the most part a genuine, honest enthusiasm ; but already we know that this zeal, though expressing itself at first in mere personal, volunteered enterprises, was glad, when defeated, to look back to St Petersburg and invoke the aid of the State. In obedience to that appeal, weighty armies are now fast assembling on the frontiers of the Turkish dominions, and it would be rash to make sure that, however disinterested originally, a State making these huge exertions will long remain purely angelic. The young Kirdeff could die for a shadowy, perhaps half-formed idea, but in the camp of 200,000 men, and in the Cabinet which has brought them together, coarser objects, if deemed within reach, must needs be tempting the choice. A. W. K. December 20, 1876.