Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/131

IN THE WAR AGAINST RUSSIA. 101 discarded, no Power, however closely bound to chap. IX us by the nature of things, could vSntury tCii'ely ' upon our friendship. States wliose interests in great European questions .v,e re exactly; thg p^pe as our own, States which had always looked to the welfare and strength of England as main conditions of their own safety, found no more favour with us than those who consumed much of their revenue in preparing implements for the slaughter of ]^]nglishmen and the sinking of Eng- lish ships. They Avere therefore obliged to shape their policy upon the supposition that any slight matter in which the Foreign OHice might chance to be interesting itself at the moment — nay, even a difference of opinion upon questions of internal government (and this, be it remembered, was an apple which could always be thrown) — would be enough to make England repulse them. From this cause, perhaps, more than from any other, there had sprung up in Germany that semblance of close friendship with the court of St Peters- burg which had helped to allure the Czar into dangerous paths. From the Emperor Nicholas Lord Palmerstou was cut off, not only by differences arising out of questions on which the policy of liussia and of England might naturally clash, but also because he was looked upon as the promoter of doctrines which the Court of St Petersburg Avas accustomed to treat as revolutionary. Even to Austria, al- though we were close bound to her by common interests, although there was no one national