16 CAUSES INVOLVING FRANCE AND ENGLAND c n A r. committed to the two Ambassadors, but it was of ' course understood that any plans for active measures would be concerted between them and the Admirals ; and since the nature of the duty which they might be called upon to nndertake ■was known of course to the Admirals, it Avas evi- dently incumbent upon them, as well as upon the two Ambassadors, to take measures for ascertain- ing whether the Eussians were preparing to oper- ate against the coasts of Turkey. JMoreover, the English Ambassador had been instructed by his Government that, 'if the Russian fleet were to ' come out of Sebastopol, the Heets would then, as
- a matter of course, pass through the Bosphorus;'*
and, implicitly, this instruction required that measures should be taken for ascertaining whether the Czar's naval forces were in harbour or at sea, for, supposing them to have gone to sea, that was an event which (according to the orders from home) was to be the ground of a naval operation. Yet, not only were no measures taken for ascer- taining the truth, but the rumours of great naval operations in the Black Sea, and the despatch of the 22d, announcing that the Russian squadron was hovering over Sinope, and even the despatch containing the touching appeal of the Turkish Commander at Sinope, all alike i'aiUnl to draw men into actiun. This last despatch was com- municated to Lord Stratford on the 29th. Even then an instant advance of the steam squadrons liiight not have been altogether in vain, for though • ' Eastern Papers,' part ii. p. 1 13.
