THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE 1821 TO 1833 BY W.ALISON PHILLIPS 1897

298 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
The Triple Alliance appeared to be once more on the
point of breaking up. The British Cabinet saw with
horror and alarm the threatened destruction of the
Ottoman power in Europe, the maintenance of which
was one of the main articles of its political creed;
yet it was bound, by treaty obligations, by public
opinion, and, above all, by the ' untoward ' fact of
Navarino, to aid and abet in the fatal work. Wellington
indeed declared roundly that, come what might,
he would suffer no Russian aggrandisement. For the
present, however, all that could be done was to attempt
to counterbalance the expected victories of the
Czar's forces by judicious tactics within the field of
operation of the Alliance.
For the present, indeed, the alarm of England at
the action of Russia was without grounds. As has
often since been the case, the ' Sick Man/ who, according
to wise diplomatic doctors, was at the point
of dissolution, showed at the approach of danger a
most unexpectedly vigorous vitality. Instead of the
easy and triumphant march to Constantinople, which
the Russians had looked forward to when they crossed
the Pruth, it cost them two hardly-contested campaigns
before they could bring the Ottomans to terms.
This, however, was as yet '
on the knees, and between
the hands of the gods/ and, for the present, the