COMMENCED EXPEDITION TO KERTC1I. 271 ' to support any such determination on Brown's chap. ' part, and to be responsible for the under- . — ' taking.'* Thus Lord Eaglan accomplished the task of giving his lieutenant full swing, yet relieving him beforehand from all risk of blame for the choice he might happen to make of either one or the other alternative. VIII. Detractors of course may pronounce that this warrant for separate action was the evident off- spring of anger, and by natural consequence rash ; nor can any deny to such critics the vantage- ground they will hold, when reminding us that the English Commander gave leave to push on the enterprise with troops having only one-fourth of the strength he himself and his colleague had agreed to allot for the purpose. But Lord Raglan at least based his daring on fairly accurate know- ledge of the enemy's last dispositions.! This knowledge gave him a right to anticipate with something like confidence that our troops after landing in the eastern part of the Peninsula could be only encountered at first, if even en- countered at all, by some 3000 J troops of
- Lord Raglan to Admiral Lyons, 4th May 1855, £ past 3 a.m.
f This I am enabled to say by comparing the knowledge as evidenced by the papers before me with the statements of General Todleben. + The real number as we have seen being less — viz., 2572, of whom only 1883 could be spared for field operations.
