RUSSELL.
953
berth and place at mess marked out, when, as they were hauling out of dock, a telegram from Lord Hardinge to Brigadier Bentinck, indicating that the indecision which so strongly characterised the con- duct of the Government was as fully developed at the Horse Guards, begged Mr. Bussell to give up the passage, and he accordingly that night proceeded to Malta by Mar- seilles, and arrived there in advance of the Guards. In April he sailed with Sir George Brown and the staff of the Light Division to G^lli- poli, and thus witnessed the first occupation by British troops of Turkish soil ; but when he pre- sented himself at Lord Eaglan's head-quarters at Scutari, with a re- quest for permission to draw rations and camp with the Light Division, or Guards, he was refused, although the Secretary of State for War had represented that he was to receive both. In fact, at the very first step of the expedition, when the Bifle Brigade landed at Gallipoli, Mr. Bussell had to call attention to neg- lect and mismanagement, which were made the subject of Parlia- mentary inquiry and Ministerial denials, and the senior officers in the East took eatly umbrage at the freedom of criticisms which the results proved to bt» but too well founded. However, Mr. Bussell sailed with the Light Division to Varna, and some weeks later was authorised by orders from home to draw rations and forage. When the expedition sailed ^m Yama he embarked with Sir De Lacy Evans and the head-quarters staff of the Second Division, and landed at Old Fort on 14th Sept., 1854. He was present at the battle of the Alma, 20th Sept. ; at the battle of Balaclava, 25th Oct. ; at the battle of Inkermann, Nov. 5th ; and shared with the army the privations caused by the storm of Nov. 14th and b^ the trials of the winter siege, which reduced the British contingent to fk condition truly described by Lord
John Russell as "miserable, piti- able, and heartrending." That condition was mainly made known to the country by the letters of the Times* special correspondent, and his efforte, which were followed by much personal hostility and ill-will in high quarters, gave a mighty impetus 1x) the immense develop- ment of private enterprise and to the application of public means, which saved the remnants of the army. In June, 1855, after a life of constant activity in the camp before Sebastopol, he sailed with the expedition to Kertch and Yeni- Kale, and returning thence, wit- nessed and described the grand assaults on Sebastopol of 18th June and 8th Sept., 1855. After a brief visit to England in the winter of 1855, in which he was received with many marks of popular regard and offers of public honour, he returned to the Crimea, where he remained till the evacuation of the Peninsula by the last of the British forces. Scarcely was he home ere he was asked to repair to Moscow to de- scribe the coronation of the Em- peror, and during his stay there he received much attention from Prince Gortschakoff, Prince Ester - hazy, and others. When the Indian mutiny and revolt broke out the year following, he proceeded to Calcutta as "Special Correspond- ent'* of the Times, and in several interviews with Lord Canning learned to appreciate the wisdom, steadfastness, and moderation of the Govemor-G^eneral,who was held up to obloquy by a terrified press as "clemency Canning," and whose policy was sustained in his letters home by Mr. Russell, at the ex- pense of his popularity amongst the least enlightened, who are the most numerous, of the Anglo-Indians. However, Lord Clyde took him into his complete confidence, and Sir James Outram formed a friendship with him which endured to the death of the "Bayard of India." He was with Lord Clyde during all
