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 THE DEMEANOUR OF ENGLAND. 223 exercise the needed restraint, it is not so easy to c fi a p. see. They might have stayed the swift hand of '. their editor, saying rightly : ' Take care ! It is l^afe beTn^ true that the welfare of our paper is advanced ^^vne^ of ''* by the unstinted publication of well-founded to^thS-™^^ intelligence ; but, though journalists, we also ^'^'*°'"- are English ; and it would seem that the exigen- cies of war have been raising a conflict between our mere selfish interests and the duty we all owe to our country. If that conflict be once perceived and decisively recognised, there is not a man or woman amongst us who would hesi- tate to make a right choice ; but the danger is that our peace-formed habit of assuming the wholesomeness of free disclosure may mislead us in this time of war. What EusseU is telling us about the state of Lord Eaglan's army may be only too true ; but the enemy, remember, is listening ; and if only for the sake of what remains of this suffering, this valiant soldiery, let us try to stay our tongues until the danger shall have passed. The remnant of English troops before Sebastopol is so feeble in num- bers, so weakened by hardships, so cruelly overladen with duty, that, if only the enemy knew what you now seem going to tell him, he might be expected to seize his advantage, and trample out by sheer weight of numbers, the flickering spark of life that still glimmers in the English camp. What restrains him is awe. He knows indeed that our army is weak, but he imagines that its weakness may perhaps be a weakness of that strange kind which tempted