Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/196

 174 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. chap, widespread dependencies, is so often forced intc _____ warlike operations of more or less magnitude, as to be free from the predicament of having at her command no war-tried officers. Therefore, when, with such means at her disposal, she still trusts important commands to her peace-service officers, she lias not the plea of necessity. She acts in sheer wantonness. She needs, as it were, a strong swimmer, and hastens to take a man who never has happened to bathe. She wants a skil- ful ship's captain to maintain her strength on the ocean, and for this purpose chooses a bargeman who has plied thirty years on canals. As a warning instance of miscarriage resulting from this evil practice, Lord Cardigan's mistake has great worth ; because it was so obviously occasioned both by his experience, and by his want of experience — by the abundant military experience which had gathered upon him in peace-time, and by the want of that other ex- perience which men gain in war. Many an officer long versed in peace-service might have made an equivalent mistake; but, on the other hand, it is probable that in such a conjuncture as that in which Lord Cardigan found himself, no man who ever had wielded a squadron in the field would have thought himself condemned to inaction, incident The example was made the more signal by an errormonf incident which occurred at the time. Whilst Lord Cardigan sat in his saddle, expressing, under cavalry forms of speech, his envy of the