Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/253

THE DEMEANOUR OF ENGLAND. 209 those which laid bare the weakened state of our chap. army) would soon be made known to the enemy ^^' by spies, deserters, or prisoners, and that infor- mation thus passing direct across only a few furlongs of ground would neutralise any advan- tage which the Eussians miglit otherwise gain from intelligence sent home by himself, and only reaching Sebastopol after a circuit of thousands of miles ; whilst, moreover, he may fairly have trusted that any dangerous statements imparted by his hurrying pen to the conductors of the journal at home would be there, after all, in the hands of men not only able, but anxious, to suppress hurtful truths. Be that as it may, he wrote freely ; and the conditions surrounding him were such that, even if he had been want- ing in that power of acute observation which he amply possessed, he could not have helped per- ceiving the state of weakness and suffering to which our anny had been reduced. It was scarce necessary that a narrator en- gaged in his task at this time should be of the adventurous type of the more modern ' war cor- ' respondents,' because the seat of war had become fixed ; Init Mr Eussell had the very assemblage of qualities that was needed by one who would convey an idea of the condition of things on the Chersonese to our listening people at home ; for, it being of course his duty to learn and to tell, there was no one who could learn more quickly or tell better what he had learnt. His oppor- tunity of gathering intelligence depended of course in gi-eat measure upon communications VOL. VIL