Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/26

XXil THE SOURCES OF THE NARRATIVE. deep emotion, lies flat, and hushed, and docketed. It would seem as though no paper addressed to the Eng- lish Headquarters was ever destro) T ed or mislaid. With respect to my right to make public any of the papers entrusted to me, I have this, and this only, to say : circumstances have enabled me to know who ought to be consulted before any State Paper or pri- vate letter hitherto* kept secret is sent abroad into the world ; and, having this knowledge, I have done what I judge to be right. The papers entrusted to me by Lady Raglan con- tain a part only of the knowledge which, without any energy on my part, I was destined to have cast upon me ; for when it became known that the papers of the English Headquarters were in my hands, and that I was really engaged in the task which rumour had prematurely assigned to me, information of the highest value was poured in upon me from many quarters. Nor was this all. Great as was the quan- tity of information thus actually imparted to me, I found that the information which lay at my command was yet more abundant ; for I do not recollect that to any one man in this country I have ever expressed any wish for the information which he might be able to give me, without receiving at once what I believe to be a full and honest disclosure of all he could tell on the subject. This facility embarrassed me ; for I never could find that there was any limit to my power of getting at what was known in this country. I rarely asked a question without eliciting something