Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/77

IN THE WAR AGAINST RUSSIA. 47 prepare to send a small body of troops into the cif ap. Levant. ; The En^dish force was collected at INIalta. Of Troops sent '^ . to Miiltu the Ministers who joined in adopting this measure, some foresaw that the few battalions which they were despatching to the East were the nucleus of an army which might have to operate in the field ; but others looked upon them as a force intended to support our negotiations. This ambiguity of Tenriency motive was a root of evil ; for the collateral measure, arrangements which are requisite for enabling an army to live, to move, and to fight, bear a vast proportion to the mere business of collecting the men ; and there is always a danger that a body of troops, sent towards the scene of action with a diplomatic intent, will be unsupported by the measures which are requisite for actual war, and yet, upon the rupture of the negotiations, will be prematurely hurried into the field. On the other hand, the councillors of a great military State are so well accustomed to know the cost and the labour which must precede the advance of an army, that the mere protrusion of a body of well- equipped troops, unsupported by the collateral appliances of war, does not tell upon their minds as a proof of an intention to act. By despatching a few bat- talions to Malta, without instructing commissaries to go to the Levant and begin buying up the agri- cultural wealth of the country, we not only sub- jected our troops to the danger of their being brought into the field before supplies were ready, but also convinced the Russians that we could not