Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/493

This page needs to be proofread.

APPEISDIX, 4G3 say either of these tilings. The word I liavc used — and I used it with forethought, and advisedly — is not one whicli contravenes Sir John Burgoyne's impression. I have used the verb 'elicit,' Is^ote, p. 235 ; * and in the text, ]). 2G4. I did not say that Lord Raglan approached his chief Engineer officer in the language of one who professes to be ' consulting ' another ; but I assuredly hold it to be true, and have accordingly so written, that, whether Sir John Burgoyne was conscious or not of the process, liis opinion was effectually ' elicited ' by Lord Eaglan. The word which I used is strictly, minutely accurate. I quite understood when I wrote the volume that Sir John Burgoyne might not have been informed of the opinion which Lord Raglan himself entertained ; and, indeed, I expressly said this in the text, for I wrote thus : ' Even in eliciting Burgoyne's opinion he [Lord Raglan] ' did not, it seems, disclose his oivn,^ p. 264 ; and again, — •

  • What I rather imagine is, that, in eliciting Burgoyne's

' opinion. Lord Raglan did not say icliat he himself and Sir ' Edmund Lyons thought of the qtiestion,' ISTote in p. 235. When Sir John Burgoyne Avrites as though, at the time in question, he had disclosed no opinion upon the question of assauHing, he does not, apparently, consider the full import of the ' sanguine ' words which (as stated by Lord Raglan in his letter to the Duke of Newcastle, p. 272), he. Sir John Burgoyne, really used. The truth is that there Avere two very different modes of speech by which a man might express an opinion against resorting to an immediate assault. lie might either say, 'Don't ' as.sault until you have got down the fire of the place ; ' or else, without even mentioning the word 'assault,' he might say, ' Land the siege-trains at once, and proceed to use them.' Either form of expression would be perfectly

  • In this Edition, the several refereuccs above made -would apply to

Dages in chap. vii.