THE 17TH OF OCTOBEli. 361 live was : and in regard to the second, it may be c H a p. well to remember that few people having autho- rity are so constituted as to be able to carry out with great vigour the measures which they wlioUy condemn. In general, wJien men are forced to do what they disapprove, they render a sort of homage to the opinion they have been forced to desert, by doing as little as may be in the oppo- site direction. As our statesmen at home had sought rest for the soles of their feet in that shadowy land which they thought must lie some- where between peace and war,* so apparently, Dundas in his i^ain had tried to fhid some middle term between doiiig and not doing — be- tween the evil of undertaking a determined yet hopeless attack, and the all but impossible al- ternative of not attacking at all. Disapproving altogether the idea of assailing the forts with ships, he seems to have inferred that in propor- tion as he could attenuate the attack by confin- ing it within cautious limits, he would be less- ening its evil effect. But whatever was the origin of the instruc- tions, they were scattered to the winds when the naval engagement began. The men of the in- shore squadron had just been aroused by the opening of the fire against the French flee t,-|- when signal there flew out a signal from the Britannia.^ As Biiuimia
- After the disaster of Sinope. See vol ii. of Cabinet Edi-
tion, chap. ii. t At 1.5, according to the log of the Agamennion. X This was at 1.7, according to the log of the Agamemnoa.
