Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/38

 16 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. chap, which also relies a good deal upon what in the courts are called ' points ' and ' objections.' Yet it would seem that he must have been capable of attaining to a higher level ; for upon one occasion, when undertaking to defend himself in the House of Commons, he made what the House regarded as a very good speech. Lord Lucan and Lord Cardigan were both of them men possessed with exceeding self-confidence, but a self-confidence resulting from very different springs of thought. Lord Lucan's trustfulness in himself was based upon the consciousness of great ability, and upon that rare vividness of impression as well as that strength of conviction of which we were just now speaking. He was confident because he was pos- itive. On the other hand, Lord Cardigan's assur- ance was not, I think, founded upon any quality which could be rightly called self-conceit, but rather upon the corollary which he drew from the fact of his having a given command. He was so extravagantly military in his notions, so or- derly, so straight-minded, so given to narrow and literal interpretations, that from the mere fact of his having been entrusted with the charge of a brigade, he inferred his perfect fitness for the task. By the act of appointing him his Sovereign had declared him fit, and he took the Queen at her word. When we see him, by-and-by, side by side with a cavalry officer of warlike experience, at a critical moment, we shall learn to how great an absurdity a man may be brought by this army- list process of reasoning. So far did Ix>rd Car-