Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/247

THE DEMEANOUK OF ENGLAND. 203 We shall presently have to be speaking of chap, the perils brought about by some letters from 1_ camp which were sud'ered to pass into print, and besides, of several other disclosures from time to time rashly made; but whilst guilty of such indiscretions, the conductors of the ' Times,' in their character as public advisers, maintained a hiuh, warlike tone from the middle of the month of November down to even within a fortnight of the close of the year. No more able, more cogent appeals were perhaps ever made than those in which its gTcat writers insisted again and again that the despatch of reinforcements must be achieved with an exertion of will strong enough to overthrow every obstacle interposed by mere customs and forms. When the story of ' Inkerman ' reached them, they uttered, if so one may speak, the very soul of a nation enraptured with the hard-won victory, and abounding in gratitude to its distant army, yet disclosing the care, the grief, which sobered its joy and its pride. And again, when a few days later, the further accounts from our army showed the darkening of the prospect before it, the great journal using its leadership, and moving out to the front with opportune, resolute counsels, seemed clothed with a power to speak, nay, almost one may say to act, in the name of a united people. During nearly five weeks, the ' Times ' used its strength in the spirit of a patriot king, and seemed to reign with a courage that hardly could fail to hold good against the troubles of war.