Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/177

IX Till-: WAIl AGAINST RUSSIA. H7 to consult ■with them upon the question whether chap. the country was bound in honour to take up '__ arms for the Sultan, because they had spent their lives in teaching that the country could never be bound in honour to take up arms for anybody. If they had not thus disqualified themselves for useful argument, they would surely have been able to make a becoming stand against what Count Nesselrode called ' the most unintelligible ' war ' ever known. But because they had been extravagant before, therefore now they were nidi ; and because they were null, the cause entrusted to their hands was brought to destruction. The Cabinet of Lord Aberdeen was answerable for the strange course of action which brought England to cast aside the blessings ensured by the xmanimity of the four Powers for the sake of what might be hoped from a separate understand- ing with France ; and although it is true that this policy, because novel, rash, and adventurous, was highly approved by our people then glowing Avith warlike ardour, and seeking for fields of enterprise, one never ought to allow that in questions of high policy, the complicity of the public has power to absolve. A minister who has fashioned out a new policy leading his coun- try into a war ought to be able to show — not necessarily that the policy was a wise one (for man is of an erring nature), but— that at the time of its adoption there were better grounds than its mere popularity for believing it to be right. That some such grounds exist may be