To attain that result ... Her
Majesty's Ministers have persevered in exercising that self-command and
that self-restraint which impatience may mistake for indifference,
feebleness or cowardice, but which are truly the crowning greatness of a
great people, and which do not evince the want of readiness to
vindicate, when the time comes, the honor of this country."
In November a conference of some of the European powers was held at
Vienna to avert the war by mediating between Russia and Turkey, but was
unsuccessful. Mr. Gladstone said: "Austria urged the two leading
states, England and France, to send in their _ultimatum_ to Russia, and
promised it her decided support.... Prussia at the critical moment, to
speak in homely language, bolted.... In fact, she broke up the European
concert, by which France and England had hoped to pull down the
stubbornness of the Czar."
Mr. Gladstone had opposed the war, not only on humanitarian and
Christian grounds, but also because the preparation of a war budget
overthrew all his financial schemes and hopes; a new budget was
necessary, and he as Chancellor of the Exchequer must prepare it.
Knowing that the struggle was inevitable, he therefore bent his energies
to the task and conceived a scheme for discharging the expenses of the
war out of the current revenue, provided it required no more than ten
million pounds extra, so that the country should not be permanently
burdened.
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