248 ORDERS AND TREPARATIONS CHAP, convey it to the English headquarters.* It there- ^^^' fore seems right to speak of what passed when the terms of this cogent Despatch were adopted by Lord Aberdeen's Cabinet. The Duke of Newcastle so framed the draft as to make it the means of narrowing very closely the discretion left to Lord Eaglan ; and it was to be expected that the Duke might wish his De- spatch to stand in this shape, because he was eager for the undertaking, and very willing to bear upon his own shoulders a large share of the responsibility which it entailed ; but it is difficult to believe that all the other members of the Gov- ernment could have intended to place the English General under that degree of compulsion which is implied by the tenor of the instructions. It is certain, however, that the paper was well fitted to elicit at once the objections of those who might be inclined to disapprove it on account of its co- gency ; for it confined the discretion to be left to the General with a precision scarcely short of harshness. The Duke of Newcastle took the Despatch to Richmond, for there was to be a meeting of the members of the Cabinet at Pembroke Lodge, and he intended to make this the occasion for submit- ting the proposed instructions to the judgment of his colleagues.'!' It was evening — a summer even- • The truth of tliis statement will lie shoTi, as I thinlc, in R future chapter, and, indeed, it is well enough proved by the tfnnr of Lord Rafjlan's reply to the despatch. + Wednesday the 28th of June.
