CONFERENCES OF GENERALS. 77 ' ruary, without a simultaneous advance on the chap. ' Malakoff front.' ( 4 ) ■ The importance of after all endeavouring to take what with normal besiegers has commonly been the first step, that is, to invest the place, or in other words to cut off communication be- tween Sebastopol and the Eussian field -army, was much dwelt upon ; * whilst General Can- robert — and not for the first time — declared his opinion to be that, if from any cause Omar Pasha should be unable to act upon the rear or flank of the enemy from Eupatoria, he should be re- quested to come to the Chersonese with two- thirds of his army. Lord Eaglan stated his reasons for not at all sharing the opinion thus formed by General Canrobert.t The French and English engineers did not Adjourned ' Conference come to any agreement, and the adiourned Con- Bitting on J . ' J the 6th of ference sat again on the 6th of March. Then, March, the French making no proposal, Burgoyne sub- mitted a memorandum recommending an attack on the Selinghinsk and Volhynia Eedoubts with a view to drive the enemy effectually from that part of the ground. He urged that the French objections to that plan were not of the import- ance apprehended, and that the French Note of the second of February (in which all had con-
- No doubt by Niel. See the next chapter, and the Ap-
pendix, Note (2), thereto annexed. f Despatch marked ' Secret,' from Lord Raglan to Secretary of State, March 6, 1855.
