Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/22

 XVlll PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION ' Relics.' Now, the ' Document ' worshipped by the Reviewer was one perfectly genuine, yet leading him straight into error, because he hastened to use it without having ready to guide him the light of col- lateral knowledge. He believed, nay, impressively taught, that the instrument was one which, con- formably to high constitutional principles, must be signed by a Secretary of State, showing also, as he fondly imagined, that it had been so signed accord- ingly, and on these conclusions based doctrines ex- pounded in a tone of authority. Yet the actual truth is that the document in question had never required, and had never received, the signature of any Secretary of State.* Next, he taught liis dis- ciples that the paper had issued from the Depart- ment of the Secretary for War. There again, he proved wrong ; for it was from a minor Office — a money accountancy office — that the document had issued.t Then, also, he imagined the Paper to be one of great moment, and there — like the ' un- ' doubted descendants of the Iron Mask ' — he was that his ' Document ' bore the signature of a Minister — Mr Sidney Herbert — who afterwards rose to be a Secretary of State ; but omitted to inform himself that at the time when the paper was signed (the 1st of April 1854) Mr Sidney Herbert was not a Sec- retary of State, but only what was called the ' Secretary at War,' presiding over a minor, and — in the main — a financial Office. t This error was caused by imagining that the Document must have issued from the Office in which the ' Edinburgh ' contributor found it ; whereas the instrument had issued from the Office of
 * We easily see how the critic fell into this error. He observed