Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/23

 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA, CHAPTER I. I. Before entering upon the narrative of a battle chap. in which the English division of horse took a ' principal part, it seems right to speak of the SftS*" 1 selections that were made by our governing ^*"^ sof authorities when they undertook to name the cavalr >' : general officers who were to be entrusted with cavalry commands in the army despatched to the East. If a minister were unhappily forced to cast his eyes over a crowd of officers who had none of them rendered war service, and to try to draw out from among them the three or four gifted men who could best be entrusted to act in the field as generals of cavalry, it would be senseless to blame him for failing in so hard a task ; but when it so happens that within recent years the State has carried on war, there surely is one test of fitness which has such paramount VOL. V. A