Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/56

 24 CANUOMKKTS DISSENT. chap, old plan of siege against the Sebastopol town. ' Assuming that the French, as before, would as- sail the Flagstaff Bastion, and that — still as be- fore — our people would give them the best sup- port that they could by operating against the Great Redan and the Barrack Battery, he showed that in the existing state of the defences — very different from what they had been on the 17th of October — that support would almost surely be neutralised or made ineffective, unless the fire from the Malakoff could first be subdued. He urged, therefore, that the fire of the Malakoff should be subdued accordingly ; * and it followed that the task of subduing it must rest with the French, because they, and they only (since refus- ing to take on themselves the duties of our Left Attack), could dispose of any bodies of troops great enough for the object thus sought. Acceptance These ideas found favour with Bizot, the com- goyne'a mander of the French Engineers ; t and prevailed) a conference in a Conference of Three (attended by Bizot, Bur- et Three. . . . t i j goyne, and General Airey), which accordingly de- termined (though subject of course to the approval of the Commanders-in-Chief) that, before it would- be possible to assail the Redan and the Barrack Battery with any prospect of success, it was nec- essary to attack the left of the enemy's works, and. to get the better of the defences of the Malakoff.;] + From the papers before me I gather that his conversion- must have taken place so early as the 26th of December. X Lord Raglan to Secretary of State — Secret — January 2.. 1855.
 * Journal Royal Engineers, Part I., p. 85.