246 THE EMPEROR'S PLAN. chap, by a mountainous and trackless region extending, ! even as crows fly, to a distance of some 34 miles, and substantially so prohibitive of transit that the readiest mode of communicating would be to send horsemen circuitously by a trebly long route. The idea of the ' field telegraph,' as applied to such conditions, was then unripe, and not brought to bear on the project, opinion By our Minister of War this last project was our Govern- regarded as ' perfectly visionary,' as 'a wild, iin- ment of that . . n . . . lust part ot ' practicable scheme, and even as one that, it ex- the plan. ecuted, would 'lead to the inevitable ruin of his '(the Emperor's) army';* but Lord Panmure does not say, and plainly it is not the fact, that he imparted his adverse opinion to Louis Napoleon. Me seems to have calculated that, in the closer presence of realities, our imperial ally would abandon the more flighty part of the plan pre- pared for his ' army of Diversion,' and bring its left into contact with the right of Lord Raglan's field army ; so that thus (after fighting and hap- pily gaining a battle), the two forces acting to- gether would effectually conquer their way to the object of investing Sebastopol.t 'Genemi pin • Although only a portion of the forces to be em- imtirepian. ployed would consist of troops newly landed, the intended operation was to be one far dissevered from the tasks of the besiegers, and perhaps on the whole might be called a re-invasion of the Crimea from its south-eastern coast — are-invasion
- Lord Panmure to Lord Raglan, Private, 20th April 1855.
t Ibid.
