IX THE WAR AOAINST KUSSIA. 120 to stand still and submit. Therefore, witliout tak- cji a p. ing counsel of any man, lie resolved to occupy '^^' the Principalities ; but he had no belief that even that grave step would involve him in war ; for his dangerous faith in Lord Aberdeen and in the power of the English Peace Party was in full force, and grew to a joyful and ruinous certainty when he learned, that the Queen's Prime Min- ister had insisted upon revoking the grave words which had been uttered to Baron Brunnow by the Secretary of State. This illusory faith in the peacefulness of England long continued to be his guide ; and from time to time he was confirmed in his choice of the wrong path by the bearing of the persons who represented Erance, Austria, and Prussia at the Court of St Petersburg; for al- though in Paris, in London, in Vienna, in Berlin, and in Constantinople the four great Powers seemed strictly united in tlieir desire to restrain the encroachments of the Czar, this wholesome concord was so masked at St Petersburg by the courtier-like demeanour of Count Mensdorf, Colonel Eochow, and M. Castelbajac, that Sir Hamilton Seymour, though uttering the known opinion of the other three Powers as well as of his own Government, vas left to stand alone. After his acceptance of the Vienna Note, the Emperor Nicholas enjoyed for a few days the bliss of seeing all Europe united with him against the Turks, and he believed, perhaps, that Heaven was favouring him once more, and that now at last ' Canning ' was vanquished ; but in a little VOL. II. I
