[Or, to follow this affectation of silliness into more recent times, is there anything in diplomatic history that could match Lord Palmerston’s proposal made to Marshal Soult (in 1839), to storm the Dardanelles, in order to afford the Sultan 9 the support of the Anglo-French fleet against Russia?]
On the other hand, take the cool
impudence with which Sir George Macartney informs his minister that because the Swedes were extremely jealous of, and iyiortified at, their dependence on Russia, England was directed by the Court of St. Petersburg to do its work at Stockholm, undei. the British colours of liberty and independence! Or Sir James Harris advising England to surrender to Russia Minorca and the right of search, and the monopoly of mediation in the affairs of the world — not in order to gain any material advantage, or even a formal engagement on the part of Russia, but only “a strong glow of friendship” from the Empress, and the transfer to France of her “ill humour.”