Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/284

 240 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP, journal founded its charge — a charge importing ^^- nothing less than that in the midst of the winter sufferings, Lord Eaglan was neglecting his army ! As though striving to deepen the curses which such an accusation invoked, by appealing to any First, hatred found smouldering between class and class, a^dMs'; our great journalists served up the remains of a somewhat rancid old doctrine which — when fresher in the days of King George — had nur- tured the souls of young ' Radicals ; ' and they not only declared aloud that the army was ' one ' vast job, the plaything of our aristocracy,'(^^) but gave point to their language by showing and next that the General and the Headquarter Staff, to rtasun aiuf whom they ascribed neglect and mismanagement, qulrteT^' were guilty of being well-born. After speaking of our dying soldiery, the mter went on : ' But ' their aristocratic general, and their equally ' aristocratic staff view this scene of wreck and ' destruction with a gentleman-like tranquillity. ' Indeed, until stung into something like activity ' by the reflections of the press, the person on ' whom the highest responsibility for this situ- ' ation devolves, had hardly condescended even ' to make himself superficially acquainted with ' its horrors. The aristocracy are trifling with ' the safety of the army in the Crimea, just as ' here they are dawdling over that periodical ' luxury, the formation of a Government.'(^^) By a Thersites-like stroke of comparison with the wants of oui' soldiery, the very food, the very shelter supposed to be obtained at Head- staff.