Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/317

 FOR THE INVASION. 287 douing a resolution which, only a week ago, had chap. been adopted by the Allied commanders. '_ Lord Raglan, however, was resolved that the Lord Ra-- enterprise should go on. From the moment he bending the knew that the siege of Silistria had been raised the plans of 1 1 1 1 1 n T '''"' English he never doubted that, lor that year at least, the Government invasion of European Turkey was at an end. But he knew that clever men who have taken the pains to build up a neat logical structure, do not easily allow it to be treated as unsound merely because it rests upon a sliding foundation. With- out, therefore, combating the French arguments, he quietly suggested that the time which must needs elapse before the embarkation might throw new light on the probability of a renewed attack upon Turkey ; and he proposed that, in the mean- time, the preparations for the descent on the Crimea should be carried on with all speed. This opinion was adopted by every member of the con- ference. The preparations were carried on with increasing energy ; and the theory that it was the duty of the Allied commanders to abandon the enterprise was never put down by argument, but left to die away uncontested. Lord Eaglan had been struck with the value Prepara, tiODS. of the French plan for landing artillery on flat lighters, and Sir Edmund Lyons and Sir George Brown were despatched to Constantinople, with instructions to do all they could towards supply- ing the British army with means which would answer the same purpose. They discovered that a platform resting upon two boats might be made