Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/175

IN THE WAR AGAINST IIUSSIA. 145 Powers, and to avoid impairing it liy a separate chap. understanding with one of them. For want ' of this guiding principle, they always failed to see the point at which they could make their stand, and they never could choose the day on which it would become them to retire from office So they lingered on in a Cabinet which was, becoming more and more warlike, and their presence there was in two ways hurtful to the cause of peace ; for even the more earnest friends of peace were quieted by seeing that the trusty champions of the cause M-ere still members of the Government, and at last, when they could no longer help seeing that this same Government was going to a rupture with the Czar, the more rational of them thought that there must really be some great State necessity for a war in which Lord Aberdeen and Mr Gladstone were reluc- tantly engaging their country. Moreover, there was a great and good portion of the community Avho, retaining their theoretic disapproval of a needless war, were nevertheless fired with a secret longing for the clash of arms ; and these men were relieved from the pain of a conflict between duty and inclination by finding that for the righteousness of the impending war Lord Aberdeen and IMr Gladstone were their sponsors. It has been seen that, by his continuance in oftice, Lord Aberdeen kept alive in the mind of the Emperor Nicholas that dangerous notion which has often been a source of European troubles VOL. II. X