WAY OF MINISTERING TO THE ARMIES. 107 time to time carried on by the two armies re- CHAP. spectively should be made by the two com- !_ manders in concert, with, moreover, a clear understanding that the labour exacted from the whole Allied soldiery should be fairly divided between the French and the English in propor- tion to their respective numbers. General Can- robert, under such an arrangement, might either have enabled our people to undertake the repair of the road themselves by supplying their place in the trenches, or else might have got the work done by men drawn from his ' Corps of Observa- ' tion/ or by other troops under his orders ; but in one way or other, if Lord Eaglan had strongly appealed to him, he could hardly have helped taking care that the communication between our port and our camp should be made good. For the need of it was too clear to bear discussion, and a great part of the duty at this time engag- ing the French was of such a kind that they might well have postponed it — postponed it, that is, for an object which was of vital moment to their English allies, and therefore, rightly judged, to themselves. (^^) To find the line of duty which Canrobert ought to have followed when dealing with such an appeal, one need only for a moment consider how a single generalissimo must have deemed himself bound to act, if commanding the two Allied armies. Such a cliief would have surely determined that his red troops must not suffer and die for want of that help and relief which his men in blue coats misht have furnished.
