Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/347

 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. 321 Aniaud.* Wc saw sometliing of a strange decree chap. which enacted that services rendered by military,. men in their operations against Frenchmen shonld hold good as titles to advancement in the same way as though they were deeds done in war against the foreigner.-f- Incredible as it may seem, that decree was long observed to the full ; :j: and the shameful principle which it involved was made to weigh heavily upon France during sev- eral of the months which followed the landing at Old Fort. Indeed, the principle, though partly waived for a time in 1855, was found to be 'still in dire operation long after the close of the Eus- sian war. -last as in a later year the French Emperor entrusted to a scared and bewildered literary man the command of a whole French army in Italy, so now he committed the honour of the flag — committed it almost exclusively — to men who had shared with him in the adventure which put France under his feet. His reckoning was, that whether it were led by honourable and skilled commanders, or were tossed and flung into action by him and his December friends, a French army engaged in a short, brisk war against a Continental State would always be likely to push its way to more or less of success ; and that if it should chance to do this under the leadership, or apparent leadership, of him and his friends, he t Ibid. Decree of 5th Decemher 1851. t It was carried to the length of making Jlagnan and St Arnaud ifar.shals of France. VOL. TH. X
 * 'Invasion of the Crimea,' voL i. chap. xiv.