Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/226

196 TRANSACTIONS CITAP. the French strategists. France and England bad XII '__ sent to the East that portion of the two armies which consists of combatants ; but neither of the Western Powers had hitherto constituted on the Dardanelles or the Bosphorus that vast accumula- tion of stores, of munitions of Avar, and means of ti'ansport which would enable it to live, to move freely, and to fight. Both the armies had means of subsistence for the next few days, and were so equipped as to be able to fight a battle on the beach ; but neither army had, nor could have for many months, those vast warehouses of stores and those immense means of land-transportwhich could alone sustain regular and extended operations in the field. They had not, in short, as yet, consti- tuted their oriental ' base of operations.' There- fore, if purely military views were to govern, and if liussia were really the formidable invader of Turkey that the world had believed her to be, there would liave been some rashness in pushing forward the combatants of llic two armies towards the scene of conflict with a knowledge that for some time to come, they would be unable to move freely in the field. Tlic true ground for overruling the hesitation of tlic French strategists lay in the now obvious fact that (to say nothing of the armies of France and P'ngland assembled on the Bospliorns, with vast means of sea-transport at their command) Eussia, ill-prepared for a great War in the South, driven out of the Euxinc, threatened by Austria, and fiercely encountered and hitherto repulsed by the