THE DEMEANOUR OF ENGLAND. 243 last method, for once, had no place, -because the chap, TX suffering endured by our troops was an occasion ' so painful, that the idea of applying ridicule to the descriptions it generated would have been beyond measure revolting. So, that resource being inapplicable, England had to pursue the first method, and words piled high upon words rose accumulating in mountainous bulk till the day of the winnowing came. What the grain of truth was that remained we long ago saw; but it took eighteen months of enquiry to attain the result ; and our country meanwhile had to suffer the fate of being lowered in character by the journal that spoke in her name. The cry broke out at a time when, however The real imperilled and weakened, our whole army, from our army it the general downwards, might be thought to with the have earned some gratitude from our people at guage. home by giving them a right to their pride. If the Alma, if Inkerman were already too many weeks old to be cared for by swift-flitting jour- nalists, the conflict in front of Sebastopol was one even then going on, one maintained day and night without ceasing, one not indeed shaped and condensed into what men regard as a ' battle,' yet involving more surely than battles com- monly do the fate of the wrestling armies." In that deadly strife, our army had long been persisting ; and though weak, though hugely outnumbered, had always held its ground. I,
- For our army (without the assent of the enemy) no re-
treat was possible. — Lord Raghin to Lord Panmure, ' con- ' fidential,' 3d March 1855.
