24 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. chap, to men in the prime of cavalry life who had . gloriously served in the field, and committed a superbly great stake to two peers of the ages of fifty-four, and fifty-seven, who, so far as concerns that teaching which is imparted by responsible war-services, were now to begin their education, and begin it in the enemy's presence. However, these two general officers were both of them brave men, and in that, at all events, there was a basis for hoping that, in spite of any misfortunes resulting from the appointments in question, the honour of the service would be sus- tained. It may be that, in professing to judge of the seed which was sown in the spring, one is governed too much by observing the harvest that was reaped in the autumn ; but certainly this double selection of generals does seem as though it were fitted — and that without much help from fortune — to involve the English Light Cavalry in some ruinous, yet brilliant disaster. There is a circumstance which tends in some measure to account for dereliction of duty on the part of those who were preparing our army for foreign service : — Men who might be supposed the most competent to form an opinion, were per- suaded that the force would be used as a support to negotiations, and not for actual warfare.*
- I do not include the Duke of Newcastle amongst those
who entertained the impression, hut certainly the communica- tions made to Lord llaglan— communications extending down to the eve of his departure for Paris— compelled him almost to believe that the period of foreign service would he extremely brief.
