TlIK FLANK MAKCIF. 31 t lie left ])lace in the Allied line, -with an nntler CHAP. . II. standing that, in that case, he would have to '. — give up Balaclava to the French, or else he niiglit keep Balaclava, but, as the consequence of doing so, must take his place on the right of the Allied line. To take the riglit was to add to the toils of the siege the duty of withstanding any enterprises which might be undertakt^n by the enemy's field army; to take the left was to be sheltered from molestation on all siiles except that of the town. But, on the other hand, the privilege of occu])ying Balaclava seemed, at the time, to be one of great value, l.iecause the fitness and the ample advantages of the ])ays of Kamiesh and Kazatch had not been then recognised.* licfore he made his choice Lord Piaglan con- sulted Lyons, and Lyons urged with a great earnestness that Balaclava should bo retained by the English. There, and there only, as he thought, could there be a sufficiently sure com-
- Yet it miglit li.ivi^ been. In llie inemorandnm addressed
1o our Ambassador at Constantinople in 1S34 {see note and ]d;(n, iii. p. 379), General, then Colonel, Macintosh wrote : ' Immediately after passing the lightliouse on the i)oint, theie ' is an extensive bay v/liich branches out in several directions — ' an excellent landing-place, but it is above four miles from the ' town.' The inlets thus described are those of Kamiesh and Kaz;itcli. In November 1S53 General Macintosh called the attention of the Horse Guards to his memorandum of 1834, and wrote : ' The large bay, marked D in the sketch [see copy ' of it, "Invasion of the Crimea," vol. iii. Cabinet Edition], at ' once suggests itself as the most suitable place to land a batter- ' ing-traiu and siege stores, but it is very probable that it ia ' now also forlilied.'
