[[1]] The Invasion of the Crimea. Sixth edition.
It must be borne in mind that this is the testimony of an Englishman, and one who cannot be accused of being pro-Russian.
It is interesting to recall the words addressed by the Emperor Nicholas I to the English Ambassador at Petrograd in 1853. The Emperor then said:
"The affairs of Turkey are in a very disorganised condition; the country itself seems to be falling to pieces; the fall will be a great misfortune, and it is very important that England and Russia should come to a perfectly good understanding upon these affairs. We have on our hands a Sick Man, a very Sick Man. It will be, I tell you frankly, a great misfortune if one of these days he should slip away from us, especially before all necessary arrangements are made. If the Turkish Empire falls, it falls to rise no more; and I put it you, therefore, whether it is not better to be provided beforehand for a contingency, than to incur the chaos, confusion, and the certainty of an European war, all of which must attend the catastrophe if it should occur unexpectedly and before some ulterior system has been sketched."
The Sick Man certainly has taken longer in dying than the Emperor thought, but he certainly seems to be well on the way now.
Nicholas I was a statesman, one who has been described as bearing "the stamp of a generous and chivalrous nature."
Bismarck himself, in 1849, expressed his admiration of the Emperor's conduct in regard to Hungary. He was always essentially upright and straightforward, and was in every sense of the term a strong man.
Writing of Bismarck reminds me of a story I have heard which I do not remember to have seen in print.
One of Bismarck's most violent opponents thought to damage the Chancellor's position by re-reading one of his own speeches made some years previously. In a loud determined voice the deputy read Bismarck's words before the Reichstag, no one listening to him with more attention than Bismarck himself. When at last the deputy concluded, confident of his own triumph, Bismarck exclaimed: "I should hardly have expected to hear such a prudent, useful speech, and some twenty years ago nothing could have been more appropriate. At this moment, of course, it is quite out of date and could not be acted upon."