Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/294

 250 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP. IX. proportion between the outcry made and the measures about to be proposed by the ' Time^.' were to be in any manner of keeping with the loudness of the outcry it made, they could not, of course, be otherwise than stupendous and even Titanic ; but for some time, at all events, the conductors of the journal did not so take their own words in earnest as to judge that, because our country had fallen into what they called an 'abyss,' there was therefore any necessity for departing from our slow English ways. They, of course, had to mark down the victims who should be offered in sacrifice to expiate the winter calamities ; and there was one step in this direction which could be easUy taken. To displace some or all of the Ministiy by holding them responsible for the ills that had happened — this, of course, was a simple and quite familiar task, belonging to the very rudiments of our English State science. But the measure, if taken alone, was too easy to have the appear- ance of being at all sufficient ; and, on the other hand, it did not seem prudent to go beyond the bounds of mere scolding against a victorious commander whilst locked in close strife with the enemy in a distant part of the world. Still, with care and deliberation, and perhaps, strange to say, with some help from a member or two of the Government,(2^) a middle term might be found by declining to recall the com- mander, yet refusing him a loyal support. The assailants perhaps would have liked to remove at once every officer, whatever his rank, on whom their censures were falling ; and indeed they were ready to go the length of declaring