264 COMMENCED EXPEDITION TO KERTCII. CHAP, brought to bear with any sufficing severity on , those who dictate by telegraph. No one saw the grave dangers of electric com- munication more clearly than did the comman- der of the Emperor's Reserve at Constantinople ' They will be able,' wrote General Larchey, ' to ' send orders and counter-orders from Paris which ' will shake the command of the army.' * The Submarine Cable connecting the seaport of Varna with the shore of the Chersonese now came at last into full play ( l ) ; and our Govern- ment did not abuse it; but — exposed to swift dictation from Paris — the French had to learn what it was to try to carry on war with a Louis Napoleon planted at one of the ends of the wire, and at the other, a commander like Canrobert, who did not dare to meet Palace strategy with respectful evasions, still less with plain, resolute words. VI. Telegrams The first message brought out from Paris by from Paris. , , , n i ■{ submarine cable was one or a wholesome sort; for it simply empowered — and did not command — General Canrobert to call up from Constanti- nople the Corps of Eeserve ; but the messages that rapidly followed were each of them strange- ly perturbing. Night of the Between ten and eleven o'clock on the night of 3d of May. ^. g g^ o j.. May, General Canrobert came to the English Headquarters and informed Lord Raglan,
- Quoted, Rousset, vol. it p. 164.
