December 18th.—The dislike of the Foreign Enlistment Bill is very general, but nobody can give any reason for their opposition to it.[1] It is, however, so great that it is not certain that it can be carried through the House of Commons, and so little is the Government cared for that I doubt many being found who will incur the resentment of their constituents or give an unpopular vote to save them. If they should be beaten, I think they must go out. John Russell is in a bad disposition of mind, as may be gathered from his entourage, who are in rabid opposition. Lord John, however, will probably do what he can to make this measure go down, as I find he is himself the author of it; but I much doubt if he would care for the Government being broken up, and he is not unlikely to regard such a catastrophe as the event best calculated to restore him to the post he so much covets. It is certainly possible that Derby, conscious he could not make a Government himself, would offer to support the Whig section of this Cabinet with all the Peelites eliminated from it, and that an attempt might be made to form a Government with Lord John, Palmerston, and perhaps Ellenborough. However, all this is vague speculation, and not worth following out.
[1] [The object of the Foreign Enlistment Bill was to enable the Government to enlist 15,000 foreigners in the British army to be drilled in this country. It was denounced and opposed especially in the House of Lords as a dangerous and unconstitutional measure, but it eventually passed, and a considerable number of Germans were enlisted under it.]
December 20th.—Government got a majority of 39, better than was expected. Lord John threatened to resign if he was beaten. The debate will not do them much good when it is read, nor serve to render their measure more popular. Everybody thinks the whole affair has been grossly mismanaged, and that, instead of making a mystery of their intentions, they ought to have thrown out such intimations of them as would have elicited public opinion; but the truth is, not one of them had the least suspicion that the measure would meet with any resistance or even objection, nor would there have been any if Ellenborough had not started the hare, and then Derby and his party joyfully availed themselves of the opportunity to do mischief, and joined in the cry. When the bill was announced, Derby never dreamt of opposing it. The arguments against the measure seem to me very plausible, except the constitutional one, which is all stuff, and in which none of those who urge it are sincere; on the other hand, the former precedents do not apply in this case. The best argument for it is, that Raglan wants trained men as soon as possible, and complains that they send nothing but boys, who are of little use at first, and who die in great numbers under the hardships and privations the climate and the operations inflict on them. Not only were the Government totally unconscious of the opposition they should encounter, but, when they found the steam was getting up, they neglected to enter into such explanations and make out such a case as might, if well done, have extinguished dissension in the beginning. All this displays a want of prudence and foresight, for in a matter of such importance it is not enough to say that they did not expect any fault to be found with their proposal, and they ought to have employed some means to see what was likely to be thought of it before they committed themselves to it. They ought to have ascertained how it was to be carried into effect, and if they could count upon its success, and to be able to give Parliament some assurance of it, instead of saying they had taken no initiative steps out of affected deference to constitutional scruples, and knew not how they were to get the men they are asking for. It seems the general opinion of their own friends that they have mismanaged their case, and plunged into a difficulty they might have avoided.
LORD RAGLAN'S DEFICIENCIES.
The best way of avoiding it would have been to raise a regiment or two without applying to Parliament at all, mustered and arrayed them at Malta or at Heligoland, or wherever they pleased out of England, and sent them off as an experiment to the Crimea. Then, if they had done good service, and Raglan had expressed his satisfaction and asked for more, they might have raised any number and landed them here without cavil or objection; but to have adopted this course they must have seen the necessity of feeling their way, which not one of them did. The great complaint now is the want of organisation and good arrangement in the Crimea and generally at and about the seat of war, the confusion that has taken place in forwarding and distributing supplies, and the want of all expedients for facilitating the service in its various branches. There is much truth in all this, but the responsibility for it rests upon Raglan, who, if he had been of a prompt and energetic character, would have looked to these things, seen what was wanting, and have taken care to provide everything and set the necessary machinery in motion. He had carte blanche from the Government as to money and everything else, and, if he had concerted what was necessary with Stratford, and insisted on his exerting himself, I believe none of the complaints would have been made, and none of the deficiencies have been found. This is what the Duke of Wellington would have done, and his despatches are full of proofs that it is what he was always doing.
December 24th.—The third reading of the Enlistment Bill carried by 38, after a very fine speech from Bright, consisting of a part of his letter with its illustrations. In my opinion this speech was unanswerable, and no attempt was made to answer it. He was very severe on both Lord John and Palmerston. It is impossible that such reasoning as Bright's should not make some impression in the country; but I do not think any reasoning however powerful, or any display of facts however striking, can stem the torrent of public opinion, which still clamours for war and is so burning with hatred against Russia that no peace could be deemed satisfactory, or, even tolerable, that did not humble Russia to the dust and strip her of some considerable territory. Yesterday the 'Times' ventured on an article against Raglan as the cause of the disorder and confusion and consequent privations which prevail in the army. Delane wrote to me about it, and said he was aware he should be bitterly reviled for speaking these truths. I agree entirely with what he said, and see no reason why the saddle should not be put upon the right horse.
The Grove, December 31st, 1854.—The last day of one of the most melancholy and disastrous years I ever recollect. Almost everybody is in mourning, and grief and despair overspread the land. At the beginning of the year we sent forth an army amidst a tumult of joyous and triumphant anticipation, and everybody full of confidence and boasting and expecting to force the Emperor Nicholas in the shortest possible time humbly to sue for peace, and the only question was, what terms we should vouchsafe to grant him, and how much of his dominions we should leave him in possession of. Such presumptuous boasting and confidence have been signally humbled, and the end of this year sees us deploring the deaths of friends and relations without number, and our army perishing before the walls of Sebastopol, which we are unable to take, and, after bloody victories and prodigies of valour, the Russian power hardly as yet diminished or impaired. All last week I was at Hatchford with Lord Grey, when we did nothing but talk over the war, its management and mismanagement, Raglan, etc. Grey's criticisms are clever and not unfair, far from favourable to the Government, but detesting Derby, of whom he has the worst opinion, formed from a very ancient date and upon long experience of his character and conduct. Grey's idea is that there has been much mismanagement here and still greater on the spot, and that Raglan is quite incompetent and, as far as we can see, nobody else any better. The opinion about Raglan appears to be rapidly gaining ground, and the Ministers have arrived at the same conclusion.
THE FRENCH ALLIANCE.
I came here yesterday to meet Cowley, come over for a few days from Paris, and to have a talk with him and Clarendon. Cowley says that the alliance between the two countries is very hollow, and in fact there is nobody in France really friendly to us except the Emperor, Persigny, and perhaps Drouyn de Lhuys. The Emperor is bent on pursuing the war with vigour, and is sensible of the importance to himself of the French flag being triumphant. I asked him what they thought of our armies and our generals; he said from the Emperor downwards they had the highest admiration for the wonderful bravery of the troops, but the greatest contempt for the military skill of the commanders, and for all our arrangements and savoir faire. He told us the following anecdote as a proof of the blundering way in which our affairs are conducted. Newcastle wrote to him lately to beg he would ask the French Government to give us a model of certain carts their army used in the Crimea, the like of which our people there had applied to him for. The French Minister replied that he could give drawings, but had no model; but at the same time he advised us not to think of having similar ones, as these carts are so ill adapted for the purpose that they had discarded them, and had ordered others and better ones to be made, which were now in course of construction at Malta. So that we propose to get these machines without finding out whether they are suitable or not, while the French supply themselves with the proper article in our own territory.
I find from Clarendon that he is not only fully alive to Raglan's inefficiency, but has all along suspected it, and now the Government seem to have the same conviction; still they can take no step in the matter, for he has done nothing and omitted nothing so flagrantly as to call for or justify his recall, and if they were to recall him they do not know where to look for a better man to replace him. The war has hitherto failed to elicit any remarkable abilities or special aptitude for war, except in one instance, that of Captain Butler, the defender of Silistria, a young man of remarkable promise who, if he had lived, would probably have done great things and have risen to distinction.