Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/386

344 ORIGIN OF THE "WAR OF 1853 chaf. tions. He had at that time the rare gift of "being • able to keep himself alive to the proportionate value of political objects. He knew how to give up the less for the sake of attaining and keeping the greater. Governed by this principle, he gradually began to draw closer and closer towards England ; and when the angry Czar imagined that . he was advancing in the cause of his Church against a resolute champion of the Latins, his wily adversary was smiling perhaps with Lord Cowley about the ' key ' and the ' cupola,' and preparing to form an alliance on strictly temporal grounds. It would have been well for Europe if the exi- gencies of the persons then wielding the destinies of France would have permitted the State to rest content with that honest share of duty which fell to the lot of each of the four Powers when the intended occupation of the Principalities was an- nounced. Neither the interest nor the honour of France required that in the Eastern Question she should stand more forward than any other of the remonstrant States ; but the personal interest of the new Emperor and his December friends did not at all coincide with the interest of France ; for what he and his associates wanted, and what in truth they really needed, was to thrust France into a conflict which might be either diplomatic or warlike, but which was at all events to be of a conspicuous sort, tending to ward off the peril of home politics, and give to the fabric of the 2d of December something like station and celebrity in