PRINCESS LIEVEN, who long doubled the parts of a social
butterfly and a shrewd Russian agent, would not seem to be a very suitable friend for a pious Scottish Tory nobleman like the Lord Aberdeen who led us into the Crimean War. But their correspondence, now for the first time given to the public, though it was privately printed long ago, shows that the friendship was sincere and based on mutual respect. It abounds in piquant passages, especially in the years 1841-46, when Aberdeen as Foreign Secretary, while officially on the worst of terms with Guizot, the French Premier, was privately telling Guizot's Egeria in Paris how much he liked the man whose policy was causing us so much annoyance. When Aberdeen became Prime Minister at the end of 1852, he took exception to Princess Lieven's comment that a Cabinet in which he was joined with Palmerston and Russell could not possibly endure, though it proved true enough. He told his Russian friend in September, 1853, when the Eastern crisis was developing fast, that he looked for a settlement, " for a war under present circum- stances would be disgraceful to the civilised world." Aberdeen added that, despite the war-like feeling in the country, no Govern- ment which declared war on Russia could survive for three months. Whether such candid confessions, doubtless passed on to Petersburg, helped to make the Tsar Nicholas conciliatory may be questioned. But they are typical of the frankness which makes these letters exceedingly interesting. Dr. Parry has edited them with care and supplied a compact introduction and a useful index.
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