This disadvantageous treaty for Russia was made owing to the disappearance of immense numbers of soldiers.
“The pressure of the heavy taxation and of the debts, which now reached eight hundred millions, was embittered by the general distress of the country” (J. R. Green’s “A Short History of the English People,” p. 812).
“Our ultimate object is the peace of the world; but let it not be said that we cultivate peace either because we fear or because we are not prepared for war. The resources created by peace are the means of war. In cherishing these resources we but accumulate those means. Our present repose is no more a proof of our inability to act than the state of inertness and inactivity in which I have seen those mighty masses that float in the waters above your town is a proof they are devoid of strength and incapable of being fitted for action. You well know how one of those stupendous masses now reposing on their shadow in perfect stillness, how soon, upon any call of patriotism or necessity, it would assume the likeness of an animated thing, instinct with life and motion; how soon it would ruffle, as it were, its swelling plumage; how quickly it would put forth all its beauty and its bravery, collect its scattered elements of strength, and awake its dormant thunders. Such as is one of these magnificent machines when springing from inaction into a display of its strength, such is England herself, while apparently passive and motionless she silently causes power to be put forth on an adequate occasion” (Canning’s speech at Plymouth, August, 1823).
Holland’s “European Concert on the Eastern Question,” p. 206.
“The growth of intimate relations between England and that country France ... was manifestly viewed by him with jealous distrust, calculated as it was to affect most seriously any designs which might be entertained at St. Petersburg for enlarging Russian territory at the expense of Turkey. To detach England from this alliance would naturally be regarded by the Czar as a master-stroke of policy, and the recent conduct of France in the Eastern Question may have seemed to furnish an opening for making the attempt. If, however, as currently believed at the time, one main object of his visit was to ascertain for himself whether this was possible, he must soon have been satisfied to the contrary by the very decided language with which Sir Robert Peel received his suggestions as to the probably selfish action of France, in the event of the affairs of Turkey coming to a crisis” (Sir T. Martyn’s “Life of the Prince Consort,” vol. i. p. 216).