Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/314

 270 thp: winter troubles. CHAP. IX. The course of action atteinpteii by the Qov- ernment. Their fan- ciful plan. Question with whom this origin- ated. mistake he committed on the subject of land- transport. However, the Duke and his colleagues omitted the simple steps requisite for the dispersion of their errors, and they now, they thought, saw their way to a feasible course of action. They, indeed, had the wisdom to be convinced — and this, unless I mistake, by the opportune counsels of Mr Gladstone — that, at a time when Lord Eaglan's army stood engaged in close strife against a powerful enemy, they could not well wrench from him violently his two chief Head- quarter officers by a sheer exertion of power ; but, strange to say, they imagined they could make him assent to the change. That first ob- ject attained, they at once would take their next step. They would force Lord Hardinge (the Commauder-in-Chief) to remove from their posts both the Adjutant and Quartermaster Generals;"" and, instead of casting blame openly upon Lord Eaglan himself, would make him, if so one may speak, a ' quasi-constitutional sovereign ' who, in theory, ' can do no wrong,' but still must sub- mit, when required, to an enforced ' change of ' Ministry ! ' Here, then, we come upon something that we have heard of before — namely, that very charter which the great reigning journal pro- pounded on the 23d of December. Whether the coincidence of opinion was fortuitous, or resulted from any interchange of ideas between Whitehall and lUackfriars, I do not undertake
 * With respect to their power to do this, see ante, chap. iiL