The position is one of tragi-comedy. As we have tried
to show elsewhere, the situation cannot be solved or dismissed by those who say light-heartedly that this country at any rate is not going to be involved in the appalling evils of war to obtain thirty miles of rocky coast-line for Servia. Intolerable as we admit such a prospect seems, it may be that circumstances will force us to take up arms. When great wars begin nations have to think not only of the immediate cause of the quarrel, but of the consequences which may flow from not taking sides in the war. There are some quarrels where isolation may be more ruinous than partisanship in what can accurately be described as "a quarrel not our own." It is one of the chief difficulties and dangers of life, both for men and nations, that there are certain quarrels which one cannot keep out of. One thing is certain, and that is that the most dangerous course of all is to drift. We must make up our minds, or rather our statesmen must—for the matter is now out of the hands of the public— what our policy ought to be, and then maintain that policy firmly, but, as far as possible, neither selfishly nor in panic rushes. In crises of this kind nations are tempted not to act firmly till it is too late. Ignoring the fact that if war comes they will certainly be forced to take sides, they intervene when it is too late, and thus in reality bring on the war they desire above all things to avoid. That in general terms is the story of the Crimean war.
