Nvi PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION That the cited Letter in terms handed over Lord Eaglan from the rule of the Commander-in-Chief to that of ' Her Majesty's ?Iinisters/ and was meant to do that very thing, is shown plainly enough by the words of the instrument as well as by Lord Har- dinge's statement ; but 1 am able, moreover, to say that ' the course of business ' preceding and follow- ing the 5th of April 1854 (the date of the trans- ferring Letter) was exactly in accordance both with Lord Hardinge's exposition, and with all that I have stated on the subject. Between the time when Lord Raglan consented to accept the command and that 5th day of April 1854, when the transfeiring Letter was sent, there were many occasions on which the Duke of Newcastle (the Secretary of State for War) and Lord Raglan (the appointed Commander) found it useful to exchange communications in writing;""" but they did this invariably by means of private letters, so that neither of them during that period ever sent to the other a single Official Despatch. Then, however, there came the 5th of April, bring- ing with it the Letter of Transfer, and the change which thereupon followed was in strict accordance with the written mandate; for on the 10th of 1855 ; and it has not come to my knowledge that the interesting exposition he gave was ever brought into question till the Edin- burgh Reviewer assailed it — without knowing what he assailed — in the January of 1881.
- That early correspondence, as well as what followed, is before
me.
