Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/237

TIIH COUNSELS OF TlIK ALLtKS. 207 ' definitively refuse to concur.' Plainly the ques- CHAP, tion ends ; and as it ends with the non-ado])tion of ;_ the proposal, the objector prevails. He does not prevail because he is unduly obstinate, but because lie has on his side that force which in any joint counsels must always belong to the Negative. But, independently of this consideration, it riippiMt must be acknowledged that, in everv proposal to authoritv ° . ijy wiiitii assault the place at once, Lord Eaglan's wish Lor<nijfs-'. ■■■ "-^ Ian s wisli was overborne by a great weight of what may be was , justly called legitimate authority. The French had always been more careful students of the arts of war than the English ; and, for anything that transpired to the contrary, there was but one opinion in their camp. They condemned the idea of storming the place without first getting down its fire by means of the siege-guns ; and we saw that General Canrobert, their Commander- in-Chief, placed his objection on grounds of so positive a kind as almost to forbid discussion. Besides, the question was one upon which the opinion of military engineers must needs be of great weight ; and it happened, as we already know, that Sir John Burgoyne not only adhered to the same conclusion as the French, but went so far as to think that the opposite counsel was of too wild a sort to be, even for one moment, tenable.* Seeing that he could not hope to make liis own Lord mchnation prevail agamst all this concurrence course .r of opinion, Lord Raglan appears to have thought hefouu.i • See an(r, p. 178 cl scq., and the footnotes, where the words of Bnrgnvne arc given.