THE DEMEANOUK OF ENGLAND. 271 to judge; nor, indeed, can I say at all suvel}^ chap. whether this quaint expedient of applying ^^ ' constitutional ' doctrine to a general engaged in the field owed its origin to the Queen's Government, or to what many then regarded as the absolutely dictating journal. (^'^) My surmise is, however, that in cl loosing this fan- ciful course some Minister or Ministers led, whilst, for once, the great journal followed. The conductors of such a print as the ' Times ' would hardly, I think, have begun to asperse Lord Eaglan with virulence, unless they had known that the Government was turning against him ; so that, if my conjecture be sound, the newspaper storm, after all, was a fury set loose, though unwittingly, by Ministers failing in loyalty towards their general engaged in the field. But it did not, of course, at all follow that a statesman, though swerving him- self from the path which right feeling dictated, might not be sincerely revolted by the excesses of writers who were undertaking to ' strengthen ' his hands ; ' and I see that the Duke of New- castle thus wrote to Lord Eaglan : ' If anything The Duke of ' could add to the pain of writing anything which privately" ' could give you annoyance, it would be the fact the excesses ' that I am called upon to do so at a moment ' Times.- ' when you have been so unfairly and un-
- generously attacked by the ruffianly " Times."
' That I have no sympathy with these attacks, ' I believe you will readily admit.' -r„ . . , The useless- If it was right that the excesses of the great nessoisucb ""a lamenta- journal against a general in the field should be tion.
