esents each with a shell, while
extracting for himself the oyster.

Mr. Russell's "Review" is rather a paraphrase and a condensation,--the
original work of the Russian General being too costly even for the
English market. The task of the English editor is done with his usual
spirit, and with all the more zest from an evident enjoyment of finding
Mr. Kinglake in the wrong. Between his sympathies as a Briton and his
sympathies as a literary man there is sometimes a struggle. But we
Americans can do more justice to Mr. Russell than in those days of
national innocence when we knew not Mackay and Gallenga and Sala; and it
must be admitted that the tone of the present book is manly and
impartial.

Kinglake's description of the Battle of the Alma will always remain as
one of the masterpieces of literature in its way; but it is noticeable
that Todleben entirely ignores some of the historian's most dramatic
effects, and also knocks away much of his underpinning by demolishing
the reputation of General Kiriakoff, his favorite Russian witness.
Kinglake says that Eupatoria was occupied by a small body of English
troops, and tells a good story about it: Todleben declares that the
Allies occupied it with more than three thousand men and eight
field-guns. Kinglake represents Lord Raglan as forcing the French
officers, with great difficulty, to disembark the troops at a spot of
his own selection: Todleben gives to Canrobert and Martinprey the whole
credit of the final choice and of all the arrangements. And so on.

On the side of the Russians, the most interesting points brought out by
Todleben are their fearful disadvantage as regarded the armament of the
infantry, (these being decimated by the rifles of the Allies long before
the Russians were near enough to use their smooth-bores,) and the
popular enthusiasm inspired by the war in Russia. "The Czar was aided by
the spontaneous contributions of his people. Great supplies were
forwarded by private individuals of all that an army could need." "From
all parts of the empire persons sent lint, bandages, etc., by post to
the army." These are phrases which bring us back to the daily experience
of our own vaster struggle.

As respects the Allies, Todleben uniformly credits the French army with
more of every military quality than the English, save personal courage
alone. From the commanding general to the lowest private, every
technical detail of duty seems to have been better done by the