Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/270

226 TIIK WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP. IX. Mr Russell's continueil disclosvires respecting the state of our army : these rein- forced by the conduct- ors of the journal at home : the t^piieral cliaructcr of Russell's narratives. period of the winter, Mr Russell, by every mail was sending home vivid accounts of the evils that obstructed supply, and of the hardships, the sickness, the mortality afflicting and destroying our troops ; and, his narratives being given to the world with the sheets of the ' Times,' all this priceless intelligence, by means of the telegraph wire, was swiftly carried into Sebastopol.(^^) To Mr Russell's perilous disclosures the con- ductors of the paper in London from time to time, added pith. After the 5th of November, and subsequently, during several weeks, it was an object with the Allies to mask their weakness, and avert attacks by showing what aggressive vigour they could in their siege operations. This mask the great journal tore away, saying reck- lessly, in so many words,' We are reduced to the ' defensive,'(^^) and from time to time, in other forms, pressing this ugly fact upon the attention of all, including of course the enemy. The mischief of communications like these, passing round from our camp to the enemy, lay mainly, of course, in their truth ; for, if our army had been abounding in strength, little harm would perhaps have been done by telling the enemy that it was weak. But the fidelity, no less than the prudence, of Mr RusselFs accounts, was freely brought into question. The officers of our army at home did not like seeing military business brought under the kind of oljservation which Mr Russell applied to it ; and these men, having learnt from their training to overrate the value of minute accuracy as compared with that