Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/376

 332 THE WINTEK TKOUBLPJS. IX. CHAP. The long, patient search after trutli v/iounht ^^' out just conclusions at last ; but we ought to The part perccivc that the spirit which engendered this taken by our ^ .n o i p -inn iiamomists State liti^atiou was one ill-fitted for war. When it the time ^ nr^ ■ • • 1 • •! )f the winter our amiv lav suffering, its wise, heroic silence -ujrerin"s ./ «/ <->' was ill seconded by our people at home. TJiere, our clamourists proved reckless and loud. By their cries of ' All's lost ! ' bawled out in the enemy's hearing, they augmented, immensely augmented, the dangers overhanging our army; and meanwhile, by railing and scolding they did what they could, though in vain, to break down the endurance of an intrepid commander, whose calm, as we now must have learnt, was the spell then averting sheer ruin. The clamourists dis- closed an impatience of administrative troubles which, if operating in the days of Sir Arthur Wellesley, would have set a blighting curse on his Talavera campaign, and stopped short the Peninsular War.(ii2) To receive from tradition the outlines of a sound foreign policy, yet to keep it by requisite changes in harmony with a fast-changing world ; to maintain in time of peace such preparative armaments as, though capal)le of rapid expansion, shall not be unduly exhausting, yet always bear just proportion to the exigencies (jf the adopted policy ; to have a real War Dc3i)artment, with all that the title imports ; to provide that in future campaigns the lieges shall not be the marplots they were in the days of Lord llaglaii ; to re-