The French Government soon saw and met the danger. Its ambassador was recalled and disavowed. Explanations were promptly and frankly given, and readily received; and M. de Nesselrode himself, however disappointed or checked, was forced to admit that these explanations were perfectly satisfactory, and that the redress obtained in favour of the Latins was not of a nature to trench upon the immunities of the Greeks. That admission completely closed the question of the Holy Places, in which France was exclusively interested. But scarcely had it terminated when the mission of Prince Menschikoff assumed all at once a strange and startling aspect. It was soon seen that the holy places were but the mask which covered pretensions of far greater moment. The French Government, struck by the haughty and menacing tone of the Russian envoy, quickly understood the true cause of the vast military preparations of Russia, and became aware that they were the prelude to a state of things which would endanger the independence of the Sultan and the security of his states. It considered that France was bound by the Treaties of 1841, to which she was a party, as well as by her position in Europe, not to regard with indifference the proceedings of Russia; and, as a precautionary measure, it ordered the Mediterranean fleet to proceed on the 20th March to the Greek waters, and to remain there until further events rendered a nearer approach to the Sultan’s capital necessary. When that order was issued, France alone declared its belief in the grave and threatening character of the pretensions of the Czar. Austria affected to give credit to the repeated assurances of Russian moderation, and continued to keep aloof; and Lord Aberdeen, whose attention had been drawn by the public press, and, no doubt, by his own agents, to the coming storm, could perceive no cloud, no angry speck in the political horizon. The French Government, as is proved by the despatches in the _Moniteur_, persisted in its conviction that the most serious dangers were at hand; and that Russia believed that the long-expected moment had arrived for realising her traditional policy in the East—the annihilation of the Ottoman Empire, or its absorption, by the process of previous degradation. France considered that, under such circumstances, complete obstruction was impossible, and that, so far as England was concerned, the necessity of maintaining her maritime superiority ought to be a sufficient motive for her participation in a more active policy. The instructions to M. de Lacour, dated the 22d March, presupposed the adherence of the British Government to that policy; the co-operation of the English squadron was anticipated for months previously; and, in his despatch of the 3d June, M. Drouyn de Lhuys presumed that the policy of the French Cabinet would soon become that of the Powers who were equally if not more interested than France in the maintenance of the Treaties of 1841. This energetic