Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/267

 TKOUBLED COUNSELS. 235 1 sulmit to your Lordship this opinion which chap. ' seems to be inspired by considerations of a !_ ' value that will not escape you, and to which I ' think you will be willing to give your approval/ 'What surprises me,' writes Lord Raglan, 'is LordRag-
 * that, the proposition of the assault having Nation oT

'emanated from the French on the 23d, they change of ' should all have been opposed to the proceeding ' on the 25th.' The letter of the 7th of April, from the French Minister of Marine, which General Niel brought to Lord Raglan on this Wednesday the 25th, had seemingly reached Admiral Bruat in the course of the previous week ; * and on the 24th, in the presence of both Canrobert and the English Com- mander, the admiral had stated its purport ; t yet no one then broached the idea of making it serve as a ground for putting off the assault.^ Nor circum- indeed can one say that this rudely disturbing under which •i tit i i it ii ■ the letter to idea would have ever been broached at all, it Bruat was T111. in •ii- -i put forward Lord Raglan (instead of consenting) had justified the calculations of Niel by declining to assault the Redan.§ When Canrobert (having found that the Eng- lish were ready to take part in the assault) fell 'Must' have done so is what Lord Raglan says. t Ibid. J This clearly results from the 2d paragraph of the last above- cited despatch. § With respect to Niel's idea that the English on reflection would not undertake a task so desperate as the assault of the Redan, see ante, his letter of the 17 th of April.
 * Lord Raglan to Secretary of State, Secret, 28th April 1855.