he
Imperial manifesto stated that it was not the Czar's intention to
commence war, but only to obtain such security as would ensure the
restoration of the rights of Russia. This was, of course, high ground to
take, and a conference of the Great Powers was hastily summoned, with
the result that the French view of the situation was embodied by the
assembled diplomatists in the Vienna Note, which was despatched
simultaneously to Russia and Turkey. Lord John Russell, even before the
arrival of Lord Stratford at Constantinople, had come to the conclusion
that the Emperor of Russia was determined to pick a quarrel with Turkey;
but Lord Aberdeen and his Peelite following were of another mind, and
even Lord Clarendon seems for the moment to have been hoodwinked by the
Czar's protestations.

A month or two later the Foreign Minister saw matters in a different
light, for he used in the House of Lords, in the summer of 1853, an
expression which has become historic: 'We are drifting into war.' The
quarrel at this stage--for the susceptibilities of France and of Rome
had been appeased by the settlement of the question of the Holy
Places--lay between Russia and Turkey, and England might have compelled
the peace of Europe if she had known her own mind, and made both
parties recognise in unmistakeable terms what was her policy. Lord John
Russell had a policy, but no power to enforce it, whilst Lord Aberdeen
had no policy which ordinary mortals could fathom, and had the power to
keep the Cabinet--though scarcely Lord Stratford de Redcliffe--from
taking any decided course. The Emperor Nicholas, relying on the Protocol
which Lord Aberdeen had signed--under circumstances which, however, bore
no resemblance to existing conditions--imagined that, with such a
statesman at the head of affairs, England would not take up arms against
Russia. Lord Aberdeen, to add to the complication, seemed unable to
credit the hostile intentions of the Czar, even after the failure of the
negotiations which followed the despatch of the Vienna Note. Yet as far
back as June 19, Lord John Russell, in a memorandum to his colleagues,
made a clear statement of the position of affairs. He held that, if
Russia persisted in her demands and invaded Turkey, the interests of
England in the East would compel us to aid the Sultan in defending his
capital and his throne. On the other hand, if the Czar by a sudden
movement seized Constantinople, we must be prepared to make war