Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/311

 THE DEMEANOUR OF ENGLAND. 267 xnoreover, thej had now also learnt that, when chap. normal conditions failed, and a sudden emergency 1_. arose, he could meet it at the instant with ad- mirable vigour, breaking through all the trani- niels of custom, and converting liimself for the moment into a second War Minister, so that not one day should be lost in providing for the wants of his men.(^^) The Cabinet, moreover, believed with unvarying confidence that for the perform- ance of one truly momentous duty — namely, that of upholding the Anglo-French Alliance by the maintenance of good relations with General Canrobert — the chief at the head of our army was peculiarly, matchlessly qualified. Here, then, there seemed to be found in one richly-gifted commander an almost ideal assem- blage of those many and various conditions which a Ministry, watching over their general in a time of trouble and peril, must have yearned to see him fulfil. What honour, but also what policy and common-sense dictated, was plainly that to such a commander, whilst engaged in mortal strife with the enemy on a distant shore, the Queen's Government should give an unstinted and thoroughly loyal support, taking care not to luirbour a thought of assenting to any outcry against him without first hearing his answer to what the accusers might say. But then Ministers, after all, were frail mortals ; and, apart from the genuine exigencies of the public service, they felt the pressing need of the moment — the need there was of account- TliR need ing lor what had gone wrong by finding some of finding