Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/438

 408 THE CANXONADK OF CHAP, a voice in the control of their own lleot. Indeed the contrary is almost manifest, for Dundas ever spoke with warmth of the loyalty which marked the character of the Frencli Admiral; and tliis, of course, lie could not and would not have done if he had looked upon Hamclin as a free agent. Admiral IJundas had the merit of disapproving, one Dundas. , n i 11 alter another, the false steps proposed to the navy ; but then, unhappily, there remains the fact that he took those steps nevertheless. He must have deemed that the soundness of his judg- ment upon these questions was in a great measure proved when he saw his example close followed by a successor who had been the foremost of his naval critics ; and, in that respect, his vindication has since been completed by the Eussian accounts of the war; but the misfortune was that, not hav- ing the natural ascendant, nor yet that authority resulting from former exploits which might other- wise have hindered the insistants from approach- ing him with their urgency, he also wanted the stubbornness that was needed for withstanding the stress when it came. True, he was Scotsman enough to be tenacious of his mere opinions — those, indeed, he seemed never to change — but his will, over-tempered perhaps by the action of politics upon the mind of a subordinated member of the Government, was too pliant to enable him to maintain himself steadfast against the violent and sudden assaults that were made upon his freedom of action. Under the first of the two hard trials to which