and it was put beyond dispute that, though they
might not have such deadly efficacy as Lord Dundonald anticipated--on
which point the critics spoke with hesitation--they could not fail, if
properly applied, in producing very important results. But it was all in
vain. All that Lord Palmerston would agree to was to have the experiment
tried on a small scale at Sebastopol, and by two Engineer officers who
were to be instructed in their work by Lord Dundonald. Lord Dundonald
consented to the trial, if it was conducted by his son, Captain the
Honourable Arthur Cochrane, R.N. But this was not agreed to, and the
whole project fell to the ground.

At that result Lord Dundonald was hardly more disappointed than was a
large section of the English public. Friends and strangers, soldiers,
sailors, newspaper writers, and merchants, wrote to him from London,
Edinburgh, Liverpool, Birmingham, Belfast, and all other parts of the
kingdom, urging that, if the enterprise was not undertaken by
Government, it should be executed by means of a private subscription. "I
am perfectly convinced," wrote one, "that you can do all the injury to
the Russian fortifications that you say you can do. If miserable
jealousy at the Admiralty refuses you the means, take them from those
who, like myself, are very proud to be your countrymen. I am not a rich
man, but I shall gladly subscribe one hundred pounds to any scheme that
you will propose and carry out yourself." "If your lordship will appeal
to the country," wrote another, "in less than a week you will receive
subscriptions to any amount. You will then be independent of Government
routine, and the public will, without further delay, have an opportunity
of testing the value of your invention, towards which the eyes of all
Europe are anxiously turned at the present juncture."

Those suggestions, and the evidence afforded by them of a widespread
sympathy in his efforts to render a last great service to his country,
afforded real satisfaction to Lord Dundonald; but their adoption was
quite impossible. As a British officer, he could not for a moment think
of entering upon a warlike project independently of the State. Therefore
he left the work on which his heart was set undone, and soon--though by
no means so soon as he could have made it--the Russian war was brought
to a conclusion.

Whatever may have been the cause of the rejection of his offer to hasten
that conclusion by means of his secret war-plans,