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THE DEMEANOUK OF ENGLAND. 211 drollery in his way of asking some sympathy chap. for a ' poor devil of a " Times " correspondent . ' without any pens, ink, or paper.' By the natural play of a humour thus genial and taking, he tliawed a great deal of reserve, and men talked to him with much more open- ness than they would have been likely to show, if approached by a solemn enquirer in evident search of dry facts. Russell also had abundant sagacity ; and besides in his special calling was highly skilled ; for what men told him he could seize with rare accuracy, and convert at once into powerful narrative. Moreover, after a while, though hardly, I think, at the first, men could not well help imagining that Mr Eussell's good or ill will to them might express itself perhaps in the ' Times,' and this of course was a prospect which could not but give him power ; for — reminding one of the merry species of priest often found in his own native land — he seemed charged — notwith- standing his drollery — -with commission to bind and to loose. So long as his tent remained pitched amongst those of the Headquarters Staff, statements useful for his purpose were not, I think, largely offered him ; but fi-om the time when he moved to the camp of the 4th Division, he became surrounded by willing informants, whose communications were not unmixed with sharp criticism of the men in authority ; (^) so that almost witliout special effort to learn the state of our army, he not only came to know much of the dismal trutli, but also heard what