DUTY AND GLORY.
How impossible it is to translate ! Let Lord Raglan's despatch, announcing the victory of the Alma to the British War Minister, be translated ever so faithfully into French, the equivalent expressions, verified as they might be by the dictionary, would fail to create in the French mind the same impression which the measured but pregnant language excites in us. How little it would do so, we know by the phrases which masters of the French tongue, using it for official occasions, find it necessary to employ in order to call forth the requisite sense of a fact in the French mind. For the Englishman, it is sufficient to state a fact, and the conclusion is almost more powerfully conveyed by presenting the raw material for it in that form. In France, the moral must be pointed, the fact must be seasoned by amplifications. In official despatches, the distinction holds good that we may observe be- tween the cookery of John Bull, who prefers plain beef, and of M. Soyer's countrymen, who abominate a cuisine not superintended by a distinguished artiste.
In his official account of the great action, Lord Raglan does not cast his adjectives about recklessly, but uses them sparingly, if at all. He states an act, rather than characterizes the conduct of the actor. In order that the gallantry of the troops may be esti- mated, he describes their difficulties,—the rugged torrent they crossed, the broken bridge, the high ridge of ground, the powerful battery and artillery posted above the storming parties and backed by dense masses of infantry ; and this statement of the difficulties is left to characterize the behaviour of those who overcame " ap- parent impossibilities." It is not that Lord Raglan neglects to point out the conduct of his brother officers : he notices " the mode "„in which Sir George Brown conducted his division, " un- der the lost trying circumstances," with an expression of his " warrOst approbation." The Duke of Cambridge is mentioned as having brought his division into action with " great ability," and as having " had for the first time an opportunity of showing the enemy his devotion to her Majesty and to the profession of which he is so distinguished a member." Lord Cardigan is "cool," other officers give their " cordial assistance." When the writer comes to larger numbers he uses stronger language, but still measured. The officers cheerfully submitted to unusual privations ; they had with them nothing but what they could carry, no bat-horses, no tent or covering of any kind : yet " I have not heard a single murmur." Thus, Lord Raglan's praise is still conveyed in the statement of plain facts. Yet this matter-of-fact language rises to sublimity when he speaks of the largest numbers, the common soldiers- " The conduct of the troops has been admirable. When it is considered that they have suffered severely from sickness during the last two months; that, since they landed in the Crimea, they have been exposed to the ex- tremes of wet, cold, and heat ; that the daily toil to provide themselves with water has been excessive ; and that they have been pursued by cholera to the very battle-field,—I do not go beyond the truth in declaring that they merit the highest commendation. In the ardour of attack they forgot all they had endured, and displayed that high courage, that gallant spirit, for which the British soldier is ever distinguished, and under the heaviest fire they maintained the same determination to conquer as they had exhibited before they went into action."
Striking is the contrast of the French account. The very com- mencement gives the key to the whole. Lord Raglan, dating his despatch from " head-quarters," begins, " My Lord Duke, I have
the honour to inform your Grace that the Allied troops attacked a position "—and so forth ; and he proceeds with the statement of
fact. Marshal St. Arnaud, dating " field of the battle of Alma," and addressing his Imperial Master, begins, " Sire, the cannon of your Majesty has spoken." " It is a glorious day, and one more name is conquered to add to the victories which adorn the flags of the French armies." Lord Raglan states in very unadorned language the manner in which British officers perform their al- lotted tasks ; he uses few expressions to describe personal quali- ties : but the French Marshal tells us that General Bosquet " manceuvered with as much intelligence as bravery." The battle has its'" episodes of brilliant feats of valour." If the Duke of Cambridge showed his devotion to the Queen and his profession, " Prince Napoleon showed himself worthy of the great name he bears." The multitude are not forgotten—" the Zouaves were the admiration of both armies ; they are the first soldiers in the world." It seems impossible for the French tongue or pen to relate any great fact without personal compliments, without a strong tribute to an instinctive appetite that seeks for praise.
Neither of the two commanding-officers forgets his allies. Lord Raglan is content to leave the movements by the French army for description by " an abler hand "; but, still sticking to the facts, he notes that their operations were " successful, under the guidance of their distinguished commander "; and that " they manifested the utmost gallantry and eager ardour for attack, and
the high military qualities for which they are so famed." Marshal St. Arnaud finds that the division of the Duke of Cambridge and of Sir George Brown were " superb "; that the ardour of the English in the attack was " admirable "; and, still anxious to paint pictures with epithets, the Marshal portrays Lord Raglan, "in the midst of cannon and musket shot," displaying " a calmness which never left him "; " his bravery rivalling that of antiquity."
Lord Raglan's despatch does not allude to the future; Marshal St. Arnaud's does, and he writes in the potential mood as well as the future tense. He felt the want of cavalry ; which accounts, in- deed, for the comparatively easy escape of the Russians. "If I had had cavalry," he says, "I should have obtained splendid results, and Menschikoff would no longer have had an army." Beaten and
demoralized, the Russian army will probably rally at two leagues distance, and " I shall find it tomorrow on the Katscha." He
found Prince Menschikoff's pocket-book in the fugitive General's carriage, " and I shall take advantage of the valuable information which it contains." Alas! the writer was not there on the morrow, to find the Russians.
Marshal St. Arnaud appears fully to have performed the achieve- ments expected of him. He stood at noon upon the right bank of the Alma, and in the afternoon upon the spot where Menschikoff had rested in his tent; and the Marshal is not at all unconscious of his own achievements, nor is he willing that his Imperial Master should remain uninformed. " I" stands first on every occasion—" I carried into operation the manoeuvre of General Bosquet" ; " I had arranged that the English should extend their
left "—only that they did not come up to time ; " /gave the sig- nal for the general attack " ; if "I had had cavalry." There is one officer respecting whose achievements Lord Raglan makes no mention whatever, and that is the English Commander-in-chief.
Both did perhaps what was expected of them. Lord Raglan's calm phrases would be thought in Paris to be the coldness of in-
vidious indifference, if not of dull insensibility ; and the Marshal in command would outrage Parisian feeling if he did not claim for the first French officer the first place, while recognizing and gazet- ting the charming traits of his companions in arms.
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