Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/393

 APPENDIX. 361 the delay which extended from the 1st of January to the 1st of the following month. Though not based on any actual reopening of the question already decided, the unanimous vote of the Council of the 1st of February was a little bewildering ; and coupled with the whole month's inaction which had followed the New Year's Day, it had the effect of bringing a curious error into the official narratives of two great nations. Any reader of either the Official Si^ge de Sebastopol or of the Official Journal of the Royal Engineers, would imagine that the decision was on the 1st of February, whereas it was really on the 1st of January. The error was not of the kind termed • clerical,' but one such as might have been committed by some simple village chronicler who on learning the date of a mere coronation had given it as the date of the accession. I suppose that one of the great Official Narratives must on this point have copied from the other ; for otherwise, there would be something wonderful in such a coincidence as that of the two great records making, each of them, so big an error as that of striking a whole month out of the calendar. M. Rousset, I see, is aware that the engagements took place in January, and he cites for proof Bizot's letter of the 12th of that month, vol. ii. p. 31. Note 10. — Till the latter part of the month. — Ante, vol. vii. p. 340. It was only on the 21st of January that — threading his way at last between two of the most ugly perils that well could beset a commander — Lord Raglan obtained the aid of French troops in relief of our overtasked soldiery. Note 11. — Words described as 'Instructions.'' — The Official compiler of the Journal of the Royal Engineers stated (p. 85) that the Council of the 1st of February was a ' General Council ' of War ' ; but that was not the case. The Council had before it Burgoyne's suggestions in writing, and amalgamated some of them with the project approved, but was exclusively French. The decisions of the Council embraced the whole plan of opera- tions then adopted by the French, and were recorded in a paper dated the next day — the 2d of February. A copy of this paper is given in the 'Journal,' p. 148. Note 12. — Other mortal then living. — General de Todleben once did me the honour to speak to me of the zeal with which at one period of his life he had devoted himself to the science of mining, and I remember how greatly he astonished me by speak- ing of the enormous proportion of his time which he then used to spend underground.