Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/174

lit CAUSES INVOLVING FRANCE AND ENGLAND CHAP. It was the plain duty of England to take part '__ in preparing resistance to the encroachment of the Czar ; and her errors lay — not in the object, Ijut — in a choice of wrong means for attaining it ; for she rejected the course of action which must liave peacefully accomplished her purpose, and adopted a turbulent plan distinctly leading to war. In other words, she went wrong, because she suffered herself to be drawn away from that common ground taken up by the four Powers which imparted a bloodless coercion of Eussia, and adopted instead that separate understanding with one of them which induced the appeal to arms. To distribute the blame attaching upon Eng- land amongst her public men is not a very diffi- cult task. Loving peace, with a purity of motive and a devotedness of heart which no man has ever questioned, Lord Aberdeen and Mr Gladstone had the misfortune to remain members of a Government which went out of the safe paths of peace. They went wrong ; and, although it is true they went wrong at a slow rate, they con- tinued their deviation during a period of eight months ; so that at last, to their grief and dismay, they found they had been leading the country into a cruel war. Deceived by the crude notion that France and England, acting together, could secure peace, they did not undeistand that the way to maintain or restore the tranquillity of Europe was to hold to the alliance of the four