ments then agreed that as the presence of a impending attack, and that more energy on few vessels in the Bosphorus broke through the part of the British ambassador might the principle upon which the fleet had hither- have prevented it. The Admiral, too, had to been excluded, the whole force ought to received such instructions as would have enfollow. But the French Government, whilst abled him to pass the Bosphorus. It is proconsenting, expressed fears lest the Porte bable that already had commenced that unshould be excited into taking hostile meas- fortunate misunderstanding between Lord ures by this show of enthusiasm in its Stratford and Admiral Dundas, to which favour. Mr. Kinglake does not allude; but which had such fatal results during the early part of the war, and which Lord Lyons in vain endeavoured to remove. -- Aberdeen thought differently. He saw the shadow of war looming over us, and yet he had an inner persuasion that the monster itself would never come. These mixed feelings gave birth to half-measures. Hence arose that confusion, that want, and that suf fering which marked the commencement of the war, and led to so many disasters, which still weigh heavily and sorrowfully upon the memories of the people of this country. As Lord Aberdeen's love of peace had led us into a war, so it rendered us unprepared for war when we were in it. As a last effort to preserve the peace, the celebrated 'Vienna Note' was proposed by the four Powers for the acceptance of Russia and Turkey. Mr. Kinglake not being The indignation felt against the Governable to deny that the Emperor of the ment, and the conviction that his colleagues French warmly supported it, and that the would do nothing to revenge the disaster of French Ambassador at Constantinople did Sinope, induced Lord Palmerston, Mr. Kingall in his power to induce the Porte to ac- lake infers, to resign his office. It is true cept it, seeks to explain, after his usual in- that at that period Lord Palmerston did tengenious fashion, a policy so much in contra- der his resignation, but his determination diction to his previous statements. This had nothing to do with the question of war was only a fresh and patent proof of the in- or peace, upon which the Cabinet had alfinite duplicity and cunning of Louis Napo- ready decided: it was consequent upon a leon! Having sought to establish himself matter of home politics—a proposed Reform by war, he now, within a few days, sought Bill. to attain the same end by peace. In fact War between the Western Powers and he seems to have had that spirit of duality Russia had now become inevitable. Lord in thought, word, and deed, which Sir Rutherford Alcock ascribes to the Japanese. 'He was obeying,' Mr. Kinglake suggests, 'that doubleness of mind which made him always prone to do acts clashing one with another. The Russian Government had been consulted, and had agreed to accept the Note the Porte had not been consulted beforehand, and rejected it. Lord Stratford, says Mr. Kinglake, whatever may have been the language he ostensibly held under instructions from home, was the real cause of this rejection. But this was scarcely so. No Turkish ministers could have accepted The Emperor of the French made one last the Note. In their ignorance of the condi- effort to preserve peace by instructing Genetion of Turkey, the representatives at Vien- al Castelbajac to take every means to bring na did not understand the real meaning of the Emperor of Russia over to moderate the concession they asked. That the Porte counsels, and by an appeal to Nicholas himwas right in refusing to accept it, was prov- self, in an autograph letter couched in eared by the admission of Russia that the in- nest yet friendly language. It met with a terpretation placed upon it by the Turkish haughty and defiant reply. Mr. Kinglake Government was the right one, and by the sees in this new attempt to avert the horrors subsequent approval of the four Powers. of war, after having by his subtle and dangerous' proposal that the Russian fleet should not be allowed to leave the harbour of Sebastopol made war inevitable, a fresh scheme on the part of Louis Napoleon, by which he inveigled England still more into his net, and was able to venture upon the incredible audacity of speaking in her name. Mr. Kinglake only infers is true. The Emperor communicated to the English Government his intention of writing the letter, and received their sanction to it, although they believed that it would be of no avail. Turkey, menaced by Russia and humiliated by the occupation of two of her provinces, declared war. The English Government asserted that she had a right to do so. The disaster of Sinope quickly followed. Its effect upon the English people is not forgotten. Not only was it considered, rightly or wrongly Mr. Kinglake says wrongly a gross and treacherous outrage, but, what touched them more; the result of negligence on the part of those who had the fleet of England under their charge. Mr. Kinglake has shown that there was due notice of the --- What But not satisfied with this further success * of his Machiavellian plots, we are told that | Louis Napoleon, but under the rule of the the Emperor insisted upon the very letter of Bourbons and of Louis Philippe, and in a field the bond' by which he had enslaved the where competitors were many, and where English Government; and that as 'for good only deeds of valour and eminent military reasons it was of some moment to the French abilities led men to the higher places under Emperor to be signally named,' he actually the eyes of the most accomplished commandcompelled Lord Aberdeen 'to submit to a ers and the Royal Princes of France. Mr. form of words,' to be inserted into the Kinglake insinuates that he had been twice Queen's Speech on the opening of Parlia- dismissed or had twice left the service for ment on the 31st of January, 1854. To dishonourable or infamous acts. What these such lengths will the credulity of passion acts were, he does not inform us, nor does he carry even a man of Mr. Kinglake's acute produce any evidence even on hearsay of intelligence! them. But by a silly and wearying repetition of his name as St. Arnaud, formerly Le Roy,' he would lead us to infer that, like some escaped or once-convicted felon, St. Arnaud had changed his name to avoid the recognition of the police, or to spare the shame of his friends. St. Arnaud, whose family name was 'Le Roy de St. Arnaud,' had, however, done what thousands of Frenchmen had done before him — he had dropped one of his two names. But he made no secret of it. In his letters (published af ter his death) he always addresses his brother as M. Le Roy de St. Arnaud. And as, in 1848, he married a lady of one of the noblest families of Belgium, it is not probable that the disparaging stories repeated by Mr. Kinglake were very generally believed. When a summons was sent by England and France to the Emperor Nicholas, calling upon him to withdraw his troops from the Principalities by the 30th of April and making war the alternative, Austria and Prussia fell, as Mr. Kinglake says, 'preposterously short' of what the Western Powers had a right to expect of them, - in fact, deserted the allies. It might be supposed that in this, at least, the Emperor of the French was blameless. But, no! It was he, ever ready with his crafty devices, who contrived this baneful summons,' which brought England and France into a separate agreement and a separate course of action, and plunged them into war. Mr. Kinglake begins his second volume with biographical sketches of the generals who were chosen to command the armies of France and England. He elevates to the dignity of heroes of romance the men whom he loves to honour, and drags down into the depths of infamy those who have incurred his anger or his hate. Of his account of Lord Raglan we will say little. We have already given our estimate of his character.* We would only protest against the silly bombast and inflated rhodomontade in which a plain, honest Englishman is described, in a style more worthy of the pages of the journal of a sentimental young lady than of sober history. But as regards Marshal St. Arnaud, the justice which is due to the memory of a brave man who laid down his life in our joint enterprise demands that we should expose some of Mr. Kinglake's misstatements and unworthy insinuations. According to Mr. Kinglake, this mantwice expelled from the French army, unscrupulous in the prosecution of any scheme, however dishonourable-was selected by the Emperor Napoleon for his instrument in his own deeds of darkness and blood. If St. Arnaud had thrice commenced a career in the French army, and had risen to the highest rank in it, this unexampled success was accomplished not under the corrupting system of * 'Quarterly Review,' vol. ci. St. Arnaud had fought and led in the ruthless war which for a long period was waged in Algeria between the French and the Arab tribes. There was probably no French commander who in that exterminating struggle had not been guilty of acts, the remembrance of which in his calmer moments might bring a blush to the cheek of a sensitive and humane man. St. Arnaud appears to have been engaged in one of the most reprehensible. There are few countries which in such a war have not had some deeds to an * 'In 1836 for the third and last time he entered the military profession' (vol. ii. p. 4). St. Arnaud, on the death of his wife in 1836, exchanged from his his rank of Lieutenant), in order to serve in Africa; regiment, the 64th, to the Foreign Legion (retaining but there is no reason whatever for believing that he left the army at all. So far from the change arising from any disgraceful conduct on his part, he considered it in the light of a privilege, and had great difficulty in effecting the exchange ('Lettres,' vol. i. p. 92). + Mr. Kinglake, in describing the destruction of the Arabs in the cave, garbles the extract from St. Arnaud's letters, and omits all mention of the events count of the burning house at Belfort, in which he which led to it. In like manner, in giving the acwishes to make it appear that St. Arnaud had performed the part of a mountebank, he suppresses the fact that the fire was close to a powder-magazine, and that St. Arnaud exposed himself to save the life of a child (Kinglake, vol. ii. p. 5; 'Lettres de St. Arnaud,' vol. i. p. 88), an act for which he received a medal from the Government. Lord Raglan was sent to Paris on his way swer for, over which it is well that a veil should be drawn. We cannot claim to be to the East to concert measures with the an exception. But whatever may have been Emperor and St. Arnaud for the conveyhis excesses or his crimes in Algeria or else- ance of the allied armies to Turkey, and for This very where, no impartial man can doubt that he the prosecution of the war. was a skilful, experienced, and resolute com- natural incident gives occasion to Mr. Kingmander. His letters convey the impression lake to indulge in one of those explosions that he was an able and an amiable man, of sentimentality which excite infinite surwith more than an average amount of the prise when we find them in the writings of vanity peculiar to his countrymen. It was so keen a satirist. Forsooth, the English not extraordinary that the President, about Government dishonoured Lord Raglan, the to break with those Generals who had ac- friend and companion in arms of the late quired Parliamentary influence in France, Duke of Wellington, because they had should have turned to St. Arnaud. The fact allowed him to meet 'St. Arnaud, formerly of his having done so scarcely needs the ex- Le Roy, the henchman' of Louis Napoleon! planation offered by Mr. Kinglake-that St. The less Lord Raglan, in his nobleness of Arnaud was already so dishonoured that no heart, cared about his honour, the more dishonourable proposals could alarm him; careful should English Ministers have been and that he was known to be a fit tool for of the precious commodity! Mr. Kinglake executing any bloody or ruthless deed that places in the mouth of one of his colporLouis Napoleon meditated upon the French teurs of scandal and gossip an heroic and people. Mr. Kinglake says that he was indignant speech upon this momentous subbrought back to Paris and made Minister of ject (vol. ii. p. 22). It is scarcely possible War with a view to the great plot of the 2nd that Mr. Kinglake himself should have writWe presume that it December (vol. ii. p. 9). We learn from his ten such nonsense. letters, that after a successful expedition in was furnished him with other articles of the Algeria he was made General of Division, same sort cut and dry from Paris. But and that on the resignation of General Bara- Lord Raglan had, as Mr. Kinglake with sorguay, and the promotion of General Castel-row admits, a loftier and better pride-a lane, the command of a division at Paris came to him against his wishes.* He resigned the Ministry of War, and cheerfully accepted the command of the army about to be sent to Turkey. When it is remembered that at that time he was sinking under a mortal disease, that his oft-recurring agonies were such as to excite feelings of deep pity in those who witnessed them, and were such that no man who had not extraordinary resolution and self-control could bear against, and that he gave up the comfort and tender care of his home, which might have prolonged life and spared him so much suffering, the courage, the devotion, and the self-denial of the man would have drawn from a generous and high-minded adversary something more than a cold, sarcastic sneer at his courage, and a tumid invective against the indiscretions of his youth.t *'Lettres, vol. ii. pp. 349, 352. pride which consisted in doing his duty, and obeying the commands of his Sovereign. The Emperor treated Lord Raglan with the utmost confidence. He spoke with him in private, and communicated to him his instructions to St. Arnaud. He afterwards introduced him to his Minister of War and to the Marshal, and asked his opinion upon the many important questions which were connected with the arduous enterprise in which the Allies were about to engage. How, according to Mr. Kinglake, was that confidence repaid? Lord Raglan, whilst assuming an air of frankness, and courteous consideration, studiously avoided saying anything on material questions, putting off the Emperor by allusions to insignificant matters, and carefully concealing his own opinion. Lord Raglan ought to have taken one of two courses. If his sense of dignity and self-respect forbade him to act with a man of St. Arnaud's character, he should have stated his scruples to the British Government; and if there were no means of overcoming them, he should have declined the command of the English forces. Or he should have forgotten the man in the General, and banishing from his memory all that he may have heard to his harm, should bave We cannot help giving the following extract from the work of an honest English soldier, as offering a gratifying contrast to Mr. Kinglake:-During the morning (of the battle of the Alma) Marshal St. Arnaud rode along the front of the two armies to meet Lord Raglan and make final arrangements for the battle. In personal appearance the French Marshal was pale, thin, bent, and emaciated; but he seemed in good spirits and pleased when the English cheered him heartily as he passed. There was certainly something touching and chivalrous in the feeling which induced him, even in his last hours, when more feeble, to remain still at the head of his army suffering from a mortal disease, and daily growing and lead it in the field' (Adye, p. 47). · The brought himself to act cordially and frankly armies in the East had been placed under with him as his colleague. No other line one direction and control, greater successes of conduct was open to a man of high prin- would have been achieved at a less cost of ciple and even moderate wisdom. Any life and treasure. The idea of the land other must have endangered either the army forces serving under a French General, and or the alliance. But we are asked to be- the Allied navies under an English Admiral, lieve (such, we think, is the general effect of had been discussed in high quarters. If Mr. Kinglake's account of Lord Raglan), Lord Stratford and Lord Raglan had rethat, though loathing and scorning the man ceived St. Arnaud's suggestion as Mr. KingSt. Arnaud, Lord Raglan, from the first lake states they did, they would simply have interview with him at the War Council at shown a want of good breeding. Paris, secretly determined, whilst acting as St. Arnaud next suggested a plan of camhis colleague, to despise his advice, to thwart paign. A portion of the French army was to his plans, and to follow other and different be placed in position behind the Balkans, and ways. He would apparently acquiesce in only one division sent to Varna. The plan his views, and with a smile, of which the may have been a good or a bad one. It mixed irony and contempt were so little was discussed, disapproved by Lord Raglan, concealed that it came to be well known to and rejected. But it is quite sufficient for those about him, he would bow the French Mr. Kinglake that it was proposed by the Marshal out of his presence, and lead him to French commander: he jumps at the conbelieve that he cordially agreed with him, clusion that it was to be attributed to a meditating the while his own schemes, and want of bravery on the part of the French, resolved upon betraying his colleague when and almost sneers at the personal courage he had scarcely left his door. This incredi- of St. Arnaud (vol. ii., p. 101). ble and unparalleled duplicity, worthy per- French army was to take up a mere dehaps of an Italian condottiere chief of the fensive-a timidly-defensive-position,' he middle ages, but so little consonant with the significantly says. But he is himself forced to character of an English gentleman, is paint- admit, unwillingly enough, that, considering ed with the skill of an artist by Mr. King- the inadequate preparations which had been lake, and is apparently honoured with his made for a campaign, 'the hesitation of the approval. No one who knew Lord Raglan French strategists' was not without justifiwill recognise this portrait of him. If a cation. General Burgoyne had proposed to French writer should paint him after this fortify the peninsula of Gallipoli, to prevent model, upon Mr. Kinglake will be the re- the Russians seizing the Dardanelles by a sponsibility. coup de main, and trapping the Allied fleets Mr. Kinglake describes (vol. ii. p. 31) in the Sea of Marmora. It was this prothe cheerful help given by the French posal which first induced the Emperor Natroops to the English regiments which poleon to send troops to the East, to the landed at Gallipoli. He does not explain great satisfaction of the English Cabinet. why Admiral Dundas, whose duty it was to This was the first step, indeed, which led to have afforded this assistance, did not send the joint military operations in Turkey. even one ship to this part of the Dar- The works at Gallipoli were actually comdanelles.* menced.* It must not be forgotten that by St. Arnaud, when at Constantinople, ac- a despatch to Lord Raglan, of the 10th cording to Mr. Kinglake, actually sought to April, quoted by Mr. Kinglake (vol. i., p. unite under his orders the French and Turk- 106), it was laid down that his first duty ish armies, and even had the audacity to was to prevent the advance of the Russians propose that he should be entrusted with upon Constantinople; and that up to the the occasional command of English troops! end of June it was still believed that the But he was awed and humbled by the 'Can- capture of the Turkish fortresses on the ning brow' and 'thin, tight, merciless lips' Danube was merely a question of time.t of the great Eltchi; and by the polished, The fact was that the whole scheme of the pitiless contempt of Lord Raglan! He campaign was changed after the successful slunk away in silence and confounded, and resistance of the Turks. It was then no no more ventured to put forward such in- longer necessary to protect the capital. tolerable pretensions. There are some per- Secrecy, Mr. Kinglake says, was maintained sons not unskilled in war, and not forgetful as to these humiliating and irresolute counof the honour of England, although they sels. But so far from such having been the might be exposed to the scorn of Mr. Kinglake, who still believe that if the Allied * 'Staff Officer,' p. 5. * Hamley's 'Story of the Campaign,' p. 3. This fully appears from St. Arnaud's 'Letters see particularly vol. ii. p. 427. case, St. Arnaud describes his plan to his brother, on the 30th May, in a letter from Gallipoli, and enters fully into his reasons for suggesting it.* Mr. Kinglake has carefully omitted any reference to the arguments there given. The victories of Omar Pasha and the successful resistance of the Turkish fortresses on the Danube led the Emperor Nicholas to evacuate the Principalities. Here, then, the object of the alliance between England and France was accomplished; and peace, securing all the ends for which war had been hazarded, was within our reach. But, says Mr. Kinglake, the Emperor Napoleon again stepped in with his malignant devices. War now suited him; and as the warlike spirit of the English people was fairly roused, he had only to encourage it, and, if necessary, make his own plans yield to those of his ally' (vol. ii. p. 68). So the capture of Sebastopol was resolved upon, and the English ministers, like Dr. Faustus, the helpless dupes of this Imperial Mephistopheles, were led by an inevitable destiny to do his bidding. furtive visit to Sebastopol, at the risk of being taken by the Russians, as it was his belief that that was the proper place for attack.* The British Government had resolved that the Crimea should be invaded, and it became the duty of the Duke of Newcastle to communicate this determination officially to Lord Raglan. Now occurred an incident very trifling in itself, but so momentous in its consequences,' that Mr. Kinglake gives us full details of it, and constantly refers to it afterwards as one of the main causes of the expedition to Sebastopol. It was the custom in those days for the members of the Cabinet to dine alternately at the residence of one of its members. It chanced that the place of meeting, at which the draft of the despatch to Lord Raglan was to be read, was Pembroke Lodge. Either Lord John Russell's dinner and wines were detestable, or the Emperor Napoleon in his ubiquitous mischief, had got hold of his Lordship's cook. Some narcotic poison' lurked in the Ministers' meat. The Cabinet except a small minority' thrice fell fast asleep, and, after repeated vain attempts to keep open their heavy eyelids, the Duke read the draft to himself only once disturbed by a colleague tumbling from his chair! This despatch, smelling of gunpowder and bristling with sentences breathing war, received drowsy approval, and one of the greatest and most momentous steps ever taken by English ministers was taken in their sleep! Such is the story palmed upon his readers, in rounded periods and in terms of solemn indignation, by Mr. Kinglake! But it was the people and Parliament of England who insisted that the time was not yet come to yield. Was it not the fact that Russia had refused to give even the moderate guarantees which the Allied Powers had asked of her, and which might have placed some restraint upon her ambitious designs on the Turkish Empire ?t The English Ministers consequently felt, and felt rightly, that there could be no lasting peace in Europe, and no safety from the ambition of Russia, as long as Sebastopol protected The Allied Generals were ill prepared to a Russian fleet in the Black Sea. They carry out the orders from home. Their were not impelled to attack that stronghold troops were unprovided with the means of against their better judgment, as Mr. King- descending upon an enemy's coast or enterlake would lead us to believe, by the popu- ing upon a campaign. Although the Comlar outcry finding its echo in the columns of the Times.' On the contrary, the determination was calmly and resolutely taken long before public attention was directed to Sebastopol. On the morning of the 15th of June, the manifesto came forth in the great newspaper,' says Mr. Kinglake (vol. ii. p. 86). On the 3rd of June we find St. Arnaud writing from Gallipoli, that he contemplated a missariat officers had been six weeks at Constantinople, they had neglected to purchase baggage-horses. That was owing to the state of our military establishments, and our hitherto wavering policy at home. Lord Raglan was without any information as to the number of the Russian forces in the Crimea, or as to the state of the land defences of its great naval arsenal. That was the fault of Lord Stratford and of Admiral Dundas; and, partly, according to Mr. Kinglake, of Lord Raglan himself (vol. ii. P. 98). In vindication of the latter, he puts forward probably the most extraordinary excuse that was ever invented to cover the incapacity or justify the negligence of a commander. "The duty of gathering knowledge by clandestine means is repulsive to the * ' Lettres,' &c., vol. ii. p. 434. |