Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/255

 ATTACK ON SEBASTOPOL. 22 trial, and would see her wealth and strength ruin- chap, ously consumed by the mere stress of the distance L_ between the military centre of the Empire and the south-westernmost angle of the Crimea. The more the English people thought of the enterprise, the more eager they became to attempt it ; and it chanced that their feelings and opinions were shared and represented with great exactness by the jNIinister of War. The Duke of Newcastle was a man of a san- The Duke oi ^ __ Kewcastle. guine eager nature, very prone to action.* He had a good clear intellect, with more of strength than keenness, unwearied industry, and an aston- ishing facility of writing. In the assumption of responsibility he was generous and bold even to rashness. Indeed, he was so eager to see his views carried into effect, and so willing to take all the risk upon his own head, that there was danger of his withdrawing from other men their wholesome share of discretion. lie threw his whole heart into the project of the invasion ; and if the Prime Minister and Mr Gladstone were men driven forward by the feeling of the country, ill spite of their opinions and their scruples, it was not £0 with the Duke of Newcastle. The character of his mind was such as to make him essentially one with the public. Ear from being propelled by others against his will, he himself those who found their opinion upon observation made in later years ; but I am speaking of the summer of 1854, and I am "very sure that the sentence to which this note has been ap- jieuded is true. VOL. 11. P
 * I, of course, knov that this view will not be assented toby