IN THE WAR AGAINST KUSSIA. 5 to join ill bringing up the squadrons to Constanti- chap. nople without more proofs of urgent peril tli;iu ^' liad been yet obtained; l)ut lie suofrested, as an "'s^ise •' ' oo ' and guarilud opinion of his own, that the representatives of the for'^pres'efrv- niaritinio Powers should obtain from their respec- pe^^ceofthe tive Admirals such an addition of steam-force as '^"i^"^'- would secure them from any immediate attack, and enable them to assist the Government in ease of an outbreak threatening its existence, without attracting any unusual attention, or assuming an air of intimidation.* This was done.f A couple of steamers belonging to each of the great Western Powers quietly came up to Constantinople. Tran- quillity followed. Every good end was attained without ostentation or disturbance — without the evil of seeming to place the Sultan's capital under the protection of foreign Powers — and, above all, without breaking through the treaty of 1841 in a way which, however justifiable it miglit be in point of international law, clearly tended to force on a war. But the moderate and guarded policy of Lord The French Stratford at Constantinople was quickly subverted li'is means by a pressure which the French Emperor found a pressure means of putting upon the advisers of the Queen. KngUsh Of course, an understanding with a foreign Power is in its nature an abatement of a nation's free agency ; and a statesman may be honest and wise
- The steam -force of the maritime Powers already in the
Golden Horn consisted of vessels which had passed the Dar- danelles by virtue of exceptions contained in the treaty of 1841. + 'Eastern Papers,' part ii. p. 121.
