Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/277

 FOR THE INVASION. 247 urged and driven forward, by forces so over- CHAP. whelming, that scruples and objections and fears were carried away as by a flood ; and when it was proposed in the Cabinet to go and fetch, as it Avere, a new war, by undertaking this bold adven- ture, there was not one Minister present who re- fused to give his consent* Forthwith the Duke of Newcastle announced preparation the decision of the Government to the General structi'dns commanding the English army in Bulgaria, He LrdKagiau. did this by a private letter written on the 28th of June,7 and nearly at the same time he prepared the draft of a Despatch,-}- which was to convey to the English headquarters, in full detail and in official form, the deliberate instructions of the Queen's Government. This paper constituted the instrument for meting out to the General in com- mand the allowance of discretion with which he was to be entrusted. A Despatch recommending Extreme im- the expedition, but leaving to the General in com- theianguaga mand the duty of determining whether it could uny wcie be prudently undertaken, would not have been worded, followed by any invasion of the Crimea; and that which brought about the event was, not the de- cision of the Cabinet already mentioned, but the peculiar stringency of the language which was to mentous proposal to sanction an invasion of Crim Tartary took place in Downing Street on Tuesday the 27th of June, and lasted several hours. It was with anxious, with thoroughly wakeful care that our ministers weighed and determined the question then submitted to their judgment. t The contents of this will he given in another chapter.
 * The sitting of the Cabinet which thus adopted the mo-