In the Crimea the Allies contented themselves with maintaining their position in the face of a powerful and restless enemy, without assuming the initiative until thoroughly prepared to strike a vigorous blow.
The Russians, on the other hand, gave at intervals very unmistakeable evidences of vitality, but without attempting to repeat the gigantic enterprise which failed so signally at Inkermann; their object, probably, being to convince the Allies that their resources were still unexhausted, and their courage, in spite of every reverse, unquenched.
The first of these demonstrations was made with the view, apparently, of celebrating the opening of the Russian new year; and on the night of the 12th and morning of the i3th January they opened a tremendous fire on the Allies along the whole length of their lines, accompanied by a vigorous sortie on the French, which was repulsed with considerable loss; and the cannonade, having lasted with little result for nearly an hour, then ceased.
During the remainder of January skirmishes more or less severe were constantly occurring between the Russians and the French, but without in any one instance enabling the former to check the steady advance of the latter's siege-works, or altering perceptibly the relations of the belligerents. Meanwhile important changes, affecting essentially the condition and comfort of our own army, had been carried out. The whole of the warm clothing for the troops had arrived, and the threatened gloom of February and rigours of March lost much of their terrors for men, who were now amply equipped to brave them. The health of the army, though still far from satisfactory, was beginning visibly to improve: and huts erected for hospitals might be seen dotted about the camps. The severest trials with which our soldiers had had to contend, were excessive work, and want of sufficient repose: to remedy these evils, the French now began to relieve us on the extreme right; and, extending themselves from our right attack in the direction of Inkermann, divided the labours of the siege in a proportion more in keeping with the relative strength of the two armies than heretofore.
One other event, to which more importance was attached at the time than was justified in the sequel, signalised the first days of the new year. Omar Pasha, whom the Austrian occupation of the principalities had reduced to comparative inaction, arrived in the Crimea, and assumed the command of the Turkish auxiliary force in that quarter. The conditions of the siege, in the actual operations of which only French and English troops were permitted to share, and the difficulties of a triply-divided command, contributed to make his position an anomalous one; and though he rendered on more than
IX THE CUIMEA.
one occasion essential service to the common cause, and by his admirable faculty of organization brought the army of which he was the chief into a high state of efficiency, it was universally felt that energy and talent such as his demanded an independent theatre of action.
It was in obedience to these convictions that he was ultimately invested with the command-in-chief in Asia, where the events of a short campaign fully demonstrated, that, while the soldiers of Oltenitza and of Silistria had not degenerated, their general still possessed the same wisdom in council and the same rapidity in action which interposed on the Danube so unexpected an obstacle between the sanguine Russians and their long-coveted spoil.
February opened with still more cheering prospects. The weather, though with occasional relapses to cold, had become on the whole much milder, and during great portion of the month a hot dry wind prevailed, under the influence of which the moisture from the earth was rapidly absorbed, and the roads and the surface of the plateau soon became hard and practicable for wheels. The railway had now made considerable progress, and was actually at work in conveying stores to a point beyond Kadikoi. The sphere of operations of the " Times Fund" had been extended from Scutari, where its judicious and energetic administrator Mr, Macdonald, had rendered assistance quite disproportioned to the comparatively limited means at his disposal, to Balaklava; and here the sick and wounded were furnished prior to embarkation with comforts, otherwise unattainable, and for this reason, as well as for their timeliness, inappreciable.
The Crimean Army Fund, too, was in full operation, and the eagerness and emulation with which its aid was accepted by the army formed tlie most gratifying response to the liberality of those who originated and contributed to it.