Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/244

202 ORIGIN OF THE WAR OF 1853 a determination of the English people to abdicate their place in Europe ; and in proportion as this belief fixed its hold upon his mind, the tranquillity of the world was brought into danger. Another unhappy circumstance tended to keep the Czar in his fatal error. Lord Aberdeen was the Prime Minister. He was a pure and upright statesman, and it can be said that the more closely he was known the more he was honoured ; for his friends always saw in him higher qualities than he was able to disclose to the general world by writing, or by speech, or by action. It was his lot to do much towards bringing upon his country a great calamity. He drew down war by suffering himself to have an undue horror of it. With good and truly peaceful intentions, he was every day breaking down one of the surest of the safeguards which protected the peace of Europe. This he did by the dangerous language which he suffered himself to hold almost down to the time of Baron Brunnow's departure from London. If judges were to declare their horror of justice, and make it appear that they would be likely to shrink from the duty of passing sentence on one of their erring fellow-creatures, they would invite the world to pillage and murder ; but they would be commit- ting a fault less grave than that of which Lord Aberdeen was guilty. He was chief of the Govern- ment, entrusted with the forces of the State. To be chary of the use of means so puissant for good and for evil is one of the most solemn charges that can be cast upon man ; but for a ruler to