as the Czar was for
Russia,--poor, sick Turkey would have been cut and carved most
expeditiously and artistically; she would have been partitioned as
perfectly as Poland, and Abdul Medjid would have experienced the fate of
Stanislaus Poniatowski. But English ministers hold power only on
condition of doing the will of the English nation, and that nation had
contracted an aversion to Russia that was uncontrollable, and before its
hostility its ministers had to give way, slowly and reluctantly; and the
half-measures they adopted, like the half-measures of our own government
toward the secessionists, explain the disasters of the war. The English
people were determined that there should be an end, for the time at
least, to the Russian hegemony, and threw themselves into the arms of
France with a vivacity that would have astonished any other French ruler
but Napoleon III., who had lived among them, and who knew them well. The
war was waged, and, when over, what had England gained? Nothing solid,
it must be admitted. The territory of Russia remained unimpaired, and
there is not the slightest evidence that her influence in the East was
lessened by the partial destruction of Sebastopol. The Russian navy of
the Euxine had ceased to exist; but as it consisted principally of
vessels that were not adapted to the purposes of modern warfare, the
loss of the Russians in that respect was not of a very serious
character. Russia's European leadership was suspended; but her power and
her resources, which, if properly employed, must soon reinstate her,
were not damaged. England _had_ fought for an idea, and had fought in
vain.

France had as little interest in the Russian war as England, and the
French people had no wish to fight the Czar. They would have preferred
fighting the English, in connection with the Czar,--an arrangement that
would have been more profitable to their country. But the emperor had a
quarrel with his arrogant brother at St. Petersburgh, and he availed
himself of the opportunity afforded by that brother's obstinacy to teach
him a lesson from which he did not live to profit. Nicholas had cut the
new emperor, and had caused him to be taboo'd by most of the sovereigns
of Europe; and the Frenchman determined to cut his way to consideration.
This he was enabled to do, with the aid of the English; and ever since
the war's close he has held the place which became vacant on the death
of Nicholas--that of Europe's arbiter. The