At this moment, Palmerston felt that everyone on both sides had gone mad. He had no desire to fight a war whatsoever.
The main reason was that Britain had been badly weakened. Forcing its way into a war on the European continent would come at an astonishing cost.
Britain simply could not afford such a price at present. Palmerston understood this clearly, which was why his attitude remained so ambiguous.
It was impossible for Britain to feel no temptation at all, to have no thoughts about it whatsoever. After all, the two sides had long since torn off all pretense, and this truly was a once-in-a-millennium opportunity.
It had to be said that Bismarck had made a sufficiently heavy wager. With such fragrant bait set before them, it would be hard for Britain and France not to bite the hook.
At the very least, the French had already bitten down hard. Yet Palmerston remained sly. He did not know that this was a conspiracy, but he had already vaguely sensed that something was wrong.
First of all, Palmerston did not believe Franz was a reckless brute. Judging from past experience, every action by the Austrian Empire had been backed by meticulous planning.
Second, the choice of battlefield was far too poor. Even if civil war broke out within the German Confederation, the British Army would find it difficult to deploy forces into the heart of the battlefield, and once they landed, there would be no turning back.
In recent years, the losses among Britain's able-bodied forces had been somewhat too great. Even if the bones of Britain's lower classes were cheap, they still had a price in the end.
The overseas loss of more than three hundred thousand people had affected every aspect of Britain. Palmerston even said that it