Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/283

 FOR THE INVASION. 253 In the matter of Ktiinii'^' iufoniiation respect- chap, . XV ing the enemy's resources, our Foreign Office had not been idle ; and a great deal of material, obSCi"d by bearing upon this vital business, had been there omce"as'fo received, and collated. It resulted from these of tiie '^"'''^ data, that, spread over vast space, Paissia might nominally have under arms forces approaching to a million of men; but that the force in the Grim Chersonese, including the 17,000 men who formed the crews of the ships, did not, at the highest estimate, amount to more than 45,000 ; and that, although there were a few battalions which Eussia might draw towards Sebastopol from her army of the Caucasus, she had no more speedy method of largely reinforcing the Crimea than by availing herself of the troops then in retreat from the country of the Danube, and marching them round to Perekop, by the northern shores of the Euxine. Neither the ambassadors of France and Eng- Noiuforma. land at Constantinople, nor any of their generals cd in Uie or admirals, had succeeded in obtaining for tliem- selves any trustworthy information upon this vitally momentous business. For their failure in this respect more blame attaches upon the am- bassadors than upon the military and naval com- manders ; because the ambassadors had been in the Levant during a period of many months, in which (since the war was impending, but not declared) they might have bought knowledge from llussian subjects without involving their infor- mers in the perils of treason. The duty of gather-