It was necessary for the stability of his throne. It was
necessary to prevent the thoughts of France from dwelling upon the
assassination of the republic and her own infamy in submitting to that
enormous villany. If it had not been Russia, it would have been England
that the imperial usurper would have denounced as disturbing the waters
for his provocation.
Mellowed by time, and enlightened by their deplorable results, England
now views the wars with Napoleon the First in their true light. So far
from British power having been augmented by that tremendous struggle, it
has compelled England to descend from the position of a first-rate to
that of a second-rate power, so far as it concerns the politics of
Europe. Had the first Napoleon survived to this day, she would hardly
have consented to act with the same subserviency to him as she now
voluntarily acts toward his ignoble counterfeit. She would never have
stood an idle spectator of the humiliation of Austria by him. She would
never have permitted him to betray her into the causeless and ridiculous
war with her ancient ally Russia. It was the aid of Russia which
enabled her to overthrow the great Napoleon, and now she permits the
little Napoleon to bully her into a war with Russia that he may bedizen
his name with the glory of a conflict with the conqueror of his
illustrious kinsman.
If the object of Napoleon was so ignominious, contemptible, and
criminal, as we know it to have been, in producing the war of 1854, with
what obloquy must England be covered for allowing herself to be beguiled
into such a war by such a juggler?
The pretended cause of the Crimean war, as alleged, was the threatened
invasion of Turkey by Nicholas.
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