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 310 VOYAGE OF THE ARMAJ)A CHAP. XX. Lord Rag- lan's way of dealing with the French remon- Blrunts. IIU now complete ucendaut. Lis merit lay, not in any personal resistance which lie was able to oppose to Lis counsellors (for he was helpless, as we have seen, from bodily ill- ness), but in the sagacity and good sense which had led him to intrust the decision to his Eng- lish colleague. Lord Eaglau's method of dealing with the pro- test of the French authorities was cliaracteristic of himself and of the EnfrlisL nature. He did not mucL combat tLe objections set down in tLe paper, but Le passed them by, and quietly lowered tLe debate from the high region of strategy to a question of humbler sort — a question as to what four steamers could be most conveniently employed for a reconnaissance on the enemy's coast. So the conference which had been summoned to judge whether the enterprise against Sebastopol should not be brought to a stop, now found itself only deciding that tLe vessels sent on the recon- naissance sLould consist of one French steamer, together with tLe Agamemnon, tLe Caradoc, and tLe Sampson. But, in trutL, tLe powers of tLe conference had silently passed into the hands of one man. Thenceforth the protest was dropped ; for, if its framers had risen up against the notion of being drawn on into what they thought a rash venture by the mere effect of M. St Aruaud's acquiescence, they were calmed when they came to know that the whole force at last had a leader. 1 f still they held to their opinions, they did so in a spirit of