VI. 2d Period t.liG Crimea. 232 THE BATTLE OF INKERMAN. CHAP, tant, though painful advantage of knowing what was to come ; but, supposing that at first he had meant to obey, his change of purpose soon followed The state of Siucc Sir George Cathcart knew the high des- t^lnper in^ tiny which our Government under certain contin- gencies had at one time reserved for him, it was natural perhaps that, whilst deriving from this circumstance an augmented confidence in his own sagacity, he should have become more or less dis- appointed when he found himself not called upon to share in Lord Eaglan's deliberations ; and the passionate complaint which he left one day at Headquarters, is a proof that anger sprung from this cause might for the moment overmaster his judgment.* He moreover had harboured a notion that both Sir George Brown and General Airey were accustomed to act in the name of Lord Eaglan without Lord Eaglan's authority ; and now, as it happened, the order overruling Cath- cart's opinion, forbidding him from following it, and directing him in cogent terms to march in another direction, was delivered to him by one of these supposed usurpers. Here are circumstances which may seem fitted to account in some measure for the course Cathcart presently took ; but that they did actually furnish the motive power which drove him, there is not, I tliink, any proof. Whilst General Airey and Captain Hardinge were present, Sir George Cathcart's temper did
- See this paper of the (th October, and also some statements
on the .subject of the Dormant Commission, ' Invasion of the Crimea,' vol. v. of Cabinet Edition, chap. iii.
