ABSTRACT
For England, Nicholas had more admiration than English statesmen had for Russia, already the oppressor of the Poles, and soon to be the willing assistant of Austria in suppressing nationalist aspirations in Hungary. Queen Victoria refused to sanction a day of 'national humiliation' on the ground that the wickedness of the Tsar Nicholas was solely responsible for the outbreak of war. There can be no question that wherever the ultimate responsibility for the Crimean War may lie the immediate firebrand was the hero of the coup d'etat of 1851, the Emperor of the French. The Emperor relied for support fundamentally upon the peasants of France, but more directly upon two highly organized forces, the Church and the Army. Napoleon believed that the good will of both the parties might be conciliated by a diplomatic victory, especially if it were won in the region where Louis Philippe had been so conspicuously worsted by Lord Palmerston—the Near East.
