Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/195

PRECEDING TlIK INVASION. 165 peri'onnauce of duty, and even now and then chap, to actual misfeasance; so, if I keep from this " path, it is not because I think coldly of our army or our navy, but because I desire — as I am very sure our best officers do — that we should return to our ancient and more severe standard of excellence. There is another reason which moves me in the same direction. Not only is the utterance of mere praise a lazy and futile method of attempting to do justice to worthy deeds, but it even intercepts the honest growth of a man's renown by serving as a contrivance for avoiding that labour of narration upon which, for the most part, all lasting fame must rest. Too often the repute of a soldier who has done some heroic act is dealt with by a formal report declaring that he has been ' brave,' or ' gallant,' or ' has conducted himself to the perfect satis- ' faction of his commanding officer.' The cheap sugared words are quickly forgotten, and nothing remains ; whereas, if his countrymen were told, not of the mere conclusion that a man had done bravely, but of the very deed from which the inference was drawn, the story, however simple, might dwell perhaps in their minds, and they might tell it to their children, and the soldier would have his fame. Now, this history will virtually embrace the whole of the short period in which Lord Raglan's quality as a General was tried : and it seems to me, therefore, that if in narrating what happened I can reach to near the truth; if I give honest samples of what our