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of the Holy Alliance. There were, indeed, importantforces linking together the three powers in the maintenanceof their social structure and system of government,but these forces only operated powerfully enough tocounteract other forces pulling them apart when revolution,threatened or actual, inspired sufficient fear. Oncethe Austrian government had weathered the storms of1848, the pull of its eastern interests was certain to havemore weight against Russia. Nicholas paid the penaltyin the Crimean War.The Crimean War began for three main reasons:Turkish national feeling and suspicions of Russiandesigns; the requirement by the Russians of guaranteesthat the Turks would carry out their undertakings; thebelief of the Turks, encouraged by the masterful Britishambassador Stratford Canning, that in the last resortGreat Britain, if not also France, would come to theiraid in arms. The dispute over the Holy Places wasoriginally a contest between two Christian powers,Russia and France, in which the Moslem possessor ofPalestine under heavy chivying made incompatiblepromises to each separately. It was, as Stratford Canningurged, capable of adjustment, and it would have beensettled but for further Russian requirements whichseemed (with considerable reason) to most of the Turkishgovernment to amount to a recognition of Russian claimsto intervene on behalf of all the Orthodox subjects ofthe sultan.The requirements were not met, and feelings againstRussia were still more inflamed when she retaliated byoccupying the Principalities in July 1853. Thenceforwardit was almost certain that the Turks would notgive in without fighting, whatever the outcome of thenegotiations between the powers. Late in the autumnthe fighting started, and the miscalled ' massacre ofSinope,' in which a Turkish fleet in the Black Sea wasdestroyed, led to the final collapse of the pacific halfmeasuresof Aberdeen, the British prime minister, andthe entry of Great Britain and France into the war(March 1854).The British attitude to Russia was the result of half a412