Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/24

 XX PREFACE TO THE PEESENT EDITION have mistaken the name of a cliateau and town in Moravia, lie will — not merely give himself credit for correcting a. fancied misnomer, bnt — sing himself a Tc Dcam for annulling the battle of Austerlitz, with all its mighty results. To this curious heap of mistakes the critic added one more ; for he based a main part of his essay upon the assumption that in speaking of the Letter of Transfer I had committed myself to the propriety of givhig it a particular title, though in truth, as will now be seen, I had gone slightly out of my way to do the very opposite. Lord Hardinge, we saw, called the Letter of Trans- fer a ' Letter of Service ; ' and considering that he was liimself the writer of the Pajjer, and the Com- mander-in-Chief at the Horse Guards — the very Office from which the instrument issued — I might liave unreservedly followed his decisive, official au- thority without, I suppose, being liable to have my carefulness questioned ; but it so happens that — as though resolving beforehand to keep myself aloof from any mere question of official nomenclature — I described the Paper as ' what men called the ' Letter of Service;' and therefore none — not even disputants who might like to contradict Lord Har- dinge's statement on the business of his own office — will be able to say that the guarded form of des- ignation I thus chose to use was otherwise than strictly accurate.