Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/251

THE DEMEANOUR OF ENGLAND. 207 ling public writers, whilst by counsel he even chap. endeavoured to teach the Home Government ' patience.(^) We now see, I suppose, that it would have been well for Lord Raglan to choose decisively between two plans of action, and either send away all the newspaper correspondents estab- lished in the Crimea, or else give them his support and his favour under conditions that might secure to them the object they all had at heart, namely, that of Ijeing able to send home an abundance of interesting and accurate information without thereby running a risk of doing the least good to the enemy ; but, as it was, he chose an intermediate course, allow- ing the correspondents to remain in camp, yet not so recognising their functions, and not so conciliating them personally as to be able to acquire a control, or even an influence over the tenor of their letters. So what liappened was, that the correspondents, though living in camp, and drawing rations under Treasury orders, were not brought to have even a bias in favour of authority ; (J) and upon the anxious, the perilous question whether disclosures sent home might not do good to the enemy, they had to exercise their own unaided judgments. To determine such a question with safety to the interests of their country, they could scarcely be competent ; for liow was it possible that a ^vtiter not ad- mitted into the counsels of General Canrobert and Lord Raglan, and receiving no guidance from the military authorities, could know Avith what