His conduct of the negotiations preceding the Crimean War is justly
called the cornerstone of his career: at this moment of his
greatness Kinglake encounters and describes him: through the
brilliant chapters in his opening volume, as more fully later on
through Mr. Lane Poole's admirable biography, the Great Eltchi is
known to English readers. He moves across the stage with a majesty
sometimes bordering on what Iago calls bombast circumstance; drums
and trumpets herald his every entrance; now pacing the shady
gardens of the Bosphorus, now foiling, "in his grand quiet way,"
the Czar's ferocious Christianity, or torturing his baffled
ambassador by scornful concession of the points which he formally
demanded but did not really want; or crushing with "thin, tight,
merciless lips and grand overhanging Canning brow" the presumptuous
French commander who had dared to enter his presence with a plot
for undermining England's influence in the partnership of the
campaign. Was he, we ask as we end the fascinating description,
was he, what Bright and the Peace Party proclaimed him to be, the
cause of the Crimean War? The Czar's personal dislike to him--a
caprice which has never been explained {20}--exasperated no doubt
to the mind of Nicholas the repulse of Menschikoff's demands; but
that the precipitation of the prince and his master had put the
Russian Court absolutely in the wrong is universally admitted.
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