Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/407

BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. 365 treaty, that the Sultan was morally released from chap. his engagement, and might be justified in asking XVL his allies to send their fleets up through the straits. On the other hand, the appearance of foreign navies in the Dardanelles was regarded as so destructive to Russian ascendancy, that the bare prospect of it used to fill Russian statesmen with dismay; and the Emperor Nicholas held the idea in such horror that the mere approach of the French and English fleets to the Levant wrought him, as we have seen, to a state of mind which was only too faithfully portrayed by his Chancellor's Circular. It is plain, therefore, that the power of advis- Powerful ing the Sultan to call up the French and Eng- coercing lish fleets was an engine of immense force in the hands of the Western Powers ; but it is also cer- tain that this was a power which would put a much harder stress upon Russia whilst it was kept suspended over her, than it was likely to do when it came to be physically used. To subject importance Nicholas to the fear of having to see foreign war- fromapre- ... . , n , mature use ilags in the straits, was to apply a pressure well ofthepower. fitted for coercing him ; but actually to exert the power was to break its spell, and to change the Czar's wholesome dread into a frenzy of anger hardly consistent with hopes of peace. The French Emperor had no sooner engaged Thenavai . , movements the English Government in a separate understand- in winch ° x .the French ing, than he began to insist upon the necessity of Emperor o» o r J engages using the naval power of France and England in England, the way which he proposed — a way bitterly offen-