234 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP. IX. Excrava- K.mce of its language in reference to our winter troubles. grievous peril ; and, on the other hand, the con- ductors of the great journal were possessed by a notion that, to use their own phrase, they must needs keep the public ' prepared ' for coming events — that is, to speak plainly, must act as the standing prophets of England, always busied in
- telling her fortune.' And from this sense of
gipsy-like duty, when coupled with the evident danger of our army, it resulted that the journal which, a few days before, had superbly rebuked every access of alarm or discouragement was now to be enjoining despair. And in ungoverned terms : ' The decline and ' decay of our great expedition ; ' ' lamentable ' failure ; ' ' the eve of a great national disaster ; ' ' hideous complication of fatal neglects ; ' ' tremen-
- dous crisis ; ' ' verge of ruin ; ' ' the noblest army
- sacrificed ' to the ' grossest mismanagement,' ' in-
' competency,' ' lethargy,' ' aristocratic hauteur ; ' ' that liuge imposture our military system ; ' ' the ' absolute wreck of the system ; ' ' our army un- ' available in a few weeks for any effective ser- ' vice ; ' those disabled by fatigue and sickness, ' said to be no fewer than a thousand a- week ; '
- about a hundred a-day sent to the hospitals,
' never to return fit for service ; ' ' a regular drain 'of 6000 a-month ;' of our infantry rank and file, 'hardly 2000 in good healtli ; ' our army ' fallen ; ' ' about to lose, unless some extra- ' ordinary stroke of fortune intervenes, our one, ' our only army ; ' ' a few spectral figures are all ' that remain ; ' ' menaced with a disaster to ' which there can be found no parallel in the
