ose alliance had
been formed in defence of the interests of Germany, were no longer
directly concerned in the quarrel. Thus the war which England and France
declared at the end of March against Russia was one which they were left
to pursue, with the help of Turkey, alone. Lord John Russell urged that
it should be short and sharp, and with characteristic promptitude
sketched out, with Lord Panmure's help, a plan of campaign. He urged
that ten thousand men should at once be raised for the Army, five
thousand for the Navy, and that the services of fifteen thousand more be
added to the Militia. He laid stress on the importance of securing the
active aid of Austria, for he thought that her co-operation might make
the difference between a long and a short war. He proposed that Sweden
should be drawn into the Alliance, with the view of striking a blow at
Russia in the North as well as on her southern frontier. He also
proposed that English and French troops should be massed at
Constantinople, and submitted a plan of operations for the consideration
of the Cabinet.

Lord John knew perfectly well that radical changes were imperative in
the administration of the Army. The Secretary for War was, oddly
enough, Secretary for the Colonies as well, and there was also a
Secretary at War, who controlled the finances at the bidding of the
Commander-in-Chief. The Ordnance Department was under one management,
the Commissariat under another, whilst the Militia fell within the
province of a third, in the shape of the Home Office. Lord John Russell
had seen enough of the outcome of divided counsels in the Cabinet, and
insisted, in emphatic terms, on the necessity of separating the duties
of the War and Colonial Departments, and of giving the Minister who held
the former post undisputed control over all branches of the executive.

It was perhaps an undesigned coincidence, but none the less unfortunate,
that the statesmen in the Aberdeen Government who were directly
concerned with the war were former colleagues of Sir Robert Peel. Lord
Aberdeen's repugnance to hostilities with Russia was so notorious that
the other Peelites in the Cabinet fell under the suspicion of apathy;
and the nation, exasperated at the Czar's bombastic language and
high-handed action, was not in the mood to make fine distinctions. The
Duke of Newcastle and his friend, Mr. Sidney Herbert, were regarded,
perhaps unjustly, as lukewarm about the approaching campaign; but it