She is not in the condition
to wage such wars with France as she prosecuted during the last and the
beginning of the present century. She knows that she must acquiesce in
the ambitious acquisitions of the present Napoleon, or else encounter
his hostility. Cherbourg and the steam navy of France render an invasion
of the British Isles a more practicable achievement for the present
Napoleon than ever the first Napoleon could hope for. England shrinks,
therefore, from any effort to curb the present aggrandizement of France,
from _fear_. She ignominiously renounces and abandons the policy of her
monarchy, her aristocracy, and her people--pursued for two hundred years
with unfaltering pertinacity; not because she condemns it, not because
she does not feel 'justified' in resisting French acquisitions unless
'equivalents for these acquisitions as a counterpoise to the
augmentation of the power of France' are obtained; but obviously,
because she fears to encounter the arms of the present Napoleon.
When the French emperor forced upon the acceptance of Lord Aberdeen's
cabinet 'the harsh and insulting scheme of action' (as Kinglake calls
it) which provoked the war with Russia in 1854, England's dilemma was: a
war with Nicholas, or a rupture with France. 'The negotiation which had
seemed to be almost ripe for a settlement was then ruined.'[6]
A war for Napoleon at that time with one of the great powers, was a
necessity.
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