Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/368

324 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP, since it chanced that General Airey was now ' his;h in office at the Horse Guards, thus show- p^oMd'for* ^^g what besiegers would call a 'good front for Xl""of "" ' attack ; ' {^^) whilst Colonel Gordon, moreover, yearr*"^'*^"^ in liis Icss exalted position gave a similar, though less conspicuous, vantage to his truly willing assailants. Treating the stray criticisms of M'Neill and TuUoch as solemn, authoritative condemnations, and regardless of the fact that Lord Eaglan's Staff at Headquarters had long ago emerged with high praises from the test of an official enquiry, the great journal inveighed and inveighed against General Airey with a more than ever diligent zeal, throwing also at Colonel Gordon some samples of its powerful writing. Professing, as they did, to be based on the official reports of M'Neill and TuUoch, these onslauglits, of course, gave a hugely aug- mented weight to what I have called the ' little ' stray animadversions ; ' and Lord Lucan and the Commissary-General, taking fire at the strictures which touched them, there were al- Enquiryde- together four officers who sought to have oppor- tunities of exposing errors detected in the M'Neill and TuUoch reports.(i<^0) iTid granted. Their dcmauds l)eing granted, a Eoyal warrant ordained that the ' animadversions ' of the two enquiring Commissioners should themselves in Cfjiistitu- their turn undergo the test of enquiry. The Court of tribunal charged with this task was to be a board of seven general officers ; (•^^■^) and, to give its decisions full weight, the Government not only ordered that the investigation should be