Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/298

 268 ORDERS AND PREPARATIONS CHAP. Generals in the camp at Varna had absolutely no XVI. . ^ trustworthy information except what came to them from Paris or London ; and in their power of testing the statements which readied them in this way they were below the Home Govern- ments, for they did not so well know the sources from which the accounts were drawn. Justice requires that these considerations should have their weight, for they tend in some measure to explain the extreme stringency of the instruc- tions. The Minister who framed them had deter- mined, with a boldness very rare in modern times, to take upon himself an immense weight of responsibility ; and, having brought himself to tliis strong resolve, he rightly and generously did all he could to simplify the task of the Genera' whom he ventured to direct, and to make the path of duty seem clear. Thcpowerof But Lord Raglan had a station in the Allied deciding for i-i i- t/vip itt or against camp which made it very difficult lor the Home the expedi-, i i • i i i i tionbecornos Government to take his burthen ui)on themselves practically vested in by aiiy mere bold form of words. He commanded l.or.l Haglati • -^ alone. the land-forccs, but he was clothed with a power of older date than the Queen's commission. He had been privy to the business of the wars which England waged in the great days ; and if he had seen how Wellington ordered affairs in the field, lu! had witnessed too his endurance, and helped him in the patient, unapplauded toil by which Ik; ])roi)ai'od the end. Men serving under Lord Kaglan were none of them blind to the distance which History herself interposed betwixt their