THE ELEVENTH WAR : CRIMEAN WAR. 19 



terrible explosion : and remember, the day selected for this bloody 

 work was Easter Sunday — the day set, apart to commemorate the 

 Resurrection of the Saviour of Men. 



Well may Mr. Cobden declare, as he did at the time : 



" There is neither honour nor glory to be gained when a highly 

 civilized nation arrays its mighty power against a comparatively 

 feeble and ignorant people. 



" The wars," said Cobden, " got up by a Queen's officer, are 

 carried on at the expense of the people of India. 



" We place an army of 20,000 men in Burmah, we seize a territory 

 as large as England, and the proceedings attract little notice from 

 the Press and public opinion. The reason is obvious. The bill 

 for the cost of the Burmese War is presented not to us, but to 

 the unhappy ryots of Hindostan. * * « 



"And not merely the cost of the war, heavy as it will be, but the far 

 more serious burden to be entailed upon India by the 

 permanent occupation of the whole or a large part of the Burmese 

 Empire." 



THE ELEVENTH WAR: CRIMEAN WAR. 



1854-5- 



At the commencement of the year 1853 the political horizon was 

 without a cloud, when suddenly, like " a bolt from the blue,'' the 

 Eastern Question, which had long been smouldering in the East, 

 burst, and unhappily, closed the long Reign of Peace, which for forty 

 years had shone with conspicuous blessing upon Europe. 



The Great Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations of 1851^ 

 promoted by the illustrious and lamented Prince Consort " for the 

 purpose of strengthening the bonds of peace and friendship amongst 

 the nations of the earth," and which brought into the great Metropolis 

 of the world men of every race, and clime, and colour, it was fondly 

 hoped would have heralded the dawn of a brighter, a better, because 

 a more peaceful, era; when this little cloud, like the cloud which 

 Gehazi saw, " no bigger than a man's hand," rose from the eastward, 

 and casting its black shadow around, disturbed the calm which had 

 so long reigned, and threatened to burst with a mighty tempest. 



