The question, "What was to be done next?" was taken up and dealt with by Louis Napoleon himself. "The Emperor wants to know your projects," Vaillant telegraphed to Pelissier. "He hopes you will not run your head against the fortified Mackenzie position, but will maneuvre like a skilful general."

Next day Louis Napoleon, in a letter to his Minister in London, set forth his views. He wished to turn the month of October to account by a forward movement of the army, its right wing in advance, so as to force the Russians to abandon their positions near Sebastopol by threatening their communications. He went on to observe, that when the Allies should be thus masters of the Crimea, they would occupy themselves with filling in the trenches, repairing the land defences, taking care of the docks and barracks, and re-establishing the harbour as a port.

They would then abandon the Crimea, keeping Sebastopol only, and leaving there a garrison and a fleet. They would thus hold an important gage, until Russia, who could not hope to retake the fortress, should consent to treat; and, instead of further destruction, they should repair the establishments of the town as much as possible, in order to have something of value to offer.

He also wrote to Missier, urging him to use the last of the fine weather in an advance upon Simpheropol, which the reinforcement of the Russian Army would render impossible next year. Niel took the same view. But Pelissier was not to be persuaded to abandon his own opinions.

"I have been using my troops to feel for a way of advancing on my right. The Russians keep their positions behind the rocky heights, which extend from Inkerman beyond Simpheropol ; they have garnished the gaps in them with artillery, and made them more difficult to force than the ramparts of Sebastopol. In engaging there in bloody combats, producing no results, we might throw away the good position we have gained. But I will attack if you give the order."

To appear, however, to comply with the desire for action, so far as he deemed safe, he left only one French Division with the English on the Upland, and spread his army along the Tchernaya, and into the valley of Baidar; and at the same time sent a force of cavalry and guns to Eupatoria to operate with the Turks from that place against the Russian corps observing it, where some success was gained over the enemy's cavalry; and the Allied Generals were encouraged by it to augment the forces there (of which General D'Allonville commanded the whole) by a Division of French infantry and a brigade of English cavalry.

Also, a combined operation was undertaken against Kinburn, where the rivers Dnieper and Bug flow into a wide estuary, after forming highways for transport through districts affording abundant supplies. On one of these, at Nikolaieff, was a great naval station and arsenal. An English brigade, under General Spencer, and a French brigade, under General De Wimpffen, both commanded by General Bazaine, were disembarked, under cover of a combined naval squadron, whereupon the troops and ships together brought an attack to bear which in a few hours caused the place to surrender. With it the Russian Army in the Crimea lost another important source of supply.

All this time the British Ministers were not entirely at one with the Emperor. Sharing his desire for a forward movement of the armies, they strongly opposed his idea of conserving the maritime establishments of Sebastopol. In this they had much reason.

It had always been evident that Russia could have no object in maintaining a war fleet in this inland sea, where her commerce between shore and shore could need no protection, except to use it in prosecuting her designs on her neighbour's territory. It was quite in accordance with logic, therefore, when we had just been rejoicing over the destruction of the Russian Fleet, that we should destroy the means of restoring that fleet now that they lay in our power.

As to preserving them in order to have something to treat with, no provision on paper that we could wring from so slippery an anta"onist, against the undue use of his naval power, could compare in efficacy with the step of leaving him no naval power to use. Pressed by the British Government, the Emperor consented. Between Christmas and February the French and British engineers destroyed the great docks, the remaining forts and barracks on the south side of the harbour, and the aqueducts which supplied the docks.

The minor successes at Eupatoria and Kinburn by no means satisfied the desire either of the Emperor or of the British Government for a more complete and substantial triumph. The military situation, where the Allies on the one side of the Tchernaya, the Russians on the other, stood face to face, each defying their enemy to attack, presented itself under different aspects.

Under one of these, it seemed as if the Allies, pent in their corner, though they had gained the immediate prize, could not claim a victory so long as a Russian army was in the field ready to fight them. Under another, it might appear that the Allies, having destroyed that standing menace to Turkey, the Russian Fleet, with its arsenal and docks, thus attaining the grand object for which they had reEorted to arms, might well be content to hold what they had gained, and to see the enemy squander his remaining strength in maintaining an army under such difficulties as he must find in doing so at the extremity of the Empire.

Louis Napoleon, as was inevitable, viewed the case with reference to the effect on his own hold on France. It seemed to him that he still had to satisfy the Country and the Army. This thought set his imagination once more at work in the region of strategy. He had a vision of a great army, based on Kinburn, invading Russia by the bank of the Dnieper, and thus compelling its army to leave the Crimea and move towards the threatened territory.

This project, laconically disposed of by Vaillant, seems never to have been under general discussion. The British Government, equally desirous of active operations, left the mode of execution to the generals on the spot.

"It is important," Lord Clarendon wrote to Lord Cowley, so late as the 31st October, "to give positive orders to the Generals in Chief to drive the Russians out of the Crimea before the bad season sets in. If this is found impossible, at any rate we might harass them daily during the winter, so as to force them to retreat before spring. The military honour, and the political interests, of France and England require this triumph and this guarantee; we must have it at any price. Even during the winter our Fleets can so transport our troops as to harass and threaten the Russians on all sides ; in any case, something may be done to increase their difficulties and diminish their prestige."

On the other hand, Vaillant, whatever his views earlier in the autumn, now thought it too late for action. He discussed all the projects for active operations.

"We cannot, from our position at Kinburn, seriously threaten the Russian communications. On their right towards Eupatoria, on their left on the Mackenzie heights, the enemy are covered by obstacles, natural and artificial, which defend all the approaches to the vast entrenched camp which they occupy north of Sebastopol. Everywhere they have retired behind their formidable lines, without risking an engagement, as soon as the Allies have moved forward. The difficulties of the roads, the want of water, the absence of resources of all kinds, have forced General D'Allonville to fall back on Eupatoria, as they forced Marshal Pelissier to retire into the valley of Baidar after having pushed forward on the road to Bakshisarai. In this situation, the greater part of our Forces in the Crimea have become useless, and the measure of withdrawing all that can be withdrawn, without risk to our position there, appears to us reasonable. Should the British Government not think itself able to adopt this course, in view of adverse public opinion in England, the French Government ought in strictness to renounce it ; but in maintaining all their present forces in the Crimea, these must be kept in their present winter quarters on the Chersonese, without exhausting themselves in vain and perhaps perilous attempts, which the winter must render nearly impracticable."

On the original draft of this reply the Emperor wrote: "I find this Note perfect."

Pelissier, too, renewed his objections to any forward movement. He disposed of the Emperor's project for operating from Kinburn by endeavouring to show it to be impracticable. He considered it necessary, in the interests of the alliance, that the French and English Armies should no longer operate together, and set forth a plan for retaining a proportion of the French Forces round Sebastopol, at Kinburn, and at Constantinople, and sending the rest back to France, while the English, with the Turks, should occupy Kertch, and operate in Circassia towards Tiflis.

France would thus be ready to meet a possible endeavour of Russia to transfer the war to Germany at a time when the Crimea would otherwise still absorb the strength of the French Army.

A little later he expressed himself still more strongly. "Thank God it is not difficulties which frighten me. The capture of Sebastopol of which the chiefs of this Army, and others greater than they, were still doubtful on the 7th Septembershowed that I could face dangers when I saw success beyond. But here the situation is not the same. I see the obstacles; I do not perceive the success, nor even the hope of it. I should be perplexed to form a plan of campaign, still more to carry one out. . . . If, then, the Allied Governments should decide on operations such as I have been discussing, I should be obliged, to my eternal regret, to decline the honour of directing them."

No doubt Pelissier was one of the most resolute of commanders; yet it may nevertheless be doubted whether he was not swayed by influences apart from his estimate of the military problems before him, and such as have weight with less resolute men. He had under gone a tremendous strain, such as might well diminish his ardour, while the conflict hung so long in the balance. He had at last achieved a triumph, all the more brilliant because of the failure of his allies. It might well seem to him that such further successes as were to be gained in this remote region could hardly exalt the fame of him or his Army.

His officers were openly showing their desire to receive at home the compensations for all their trials which there awaited them--a desire which he may have shared more than he was conscious of, for he was growing old and heavy of frame. The notion of a campaign on the Rhine, a much more conspicuous and attractive theatre of war, was generally entertained in the army. French surgeons had prognosticated a decline in the health of the troops under existing conditions, and their apprehensions were even now beginning to be realised in a visitation of typhus. Above all, the French people were tired of the war, and ready to welcome back their army.

On the other hand, those responsible for the condition of the British army had turned the sharp lessons of the campaign to singularly good account. Our troops in the Crimea were now fed, housed, and clothed in the best way, and their health was as good as at a home station. The strength of the army was increasing every month.

In November it numbered 51,000, of which 4000 cavalry and ninety-six guns, besides a Turkish legion, raised by the British Government, of 20,000, and a German legion of 10,000. Our Land Transport corps could speedily be made adequate to the needs of these large forces in a campaign in the field. Our army medical system now so greatly surpassed that of the French that a commission was sent from Paris expressly to study it. The comparison between the two armies had become enormously in our favour.

Our fleet, too, had been vastly augmented in force and efficiency. In these circumstances, it was natural that the British people should prefer another campaign to any treaty of peace which should fail to fulfil their just expectations.

It was at this time that a diplomatic difficulty arose very threatening to the alliance, and which brought the variance in the desires and interests of the two Allied nations strongly into view. After the fall of Sebastopol Austria had once more come forward with proposals for peace. These were, from the British point of view, such as we ought not to accept.

But Russia had at this time so established her influence with high officials in France that they had first concerted with Austria, and without reference to England, what these terms should be, and had then laid them before the British Government as what must be accepted without modification. Palmerston was not the sort of Minister to allow his country to be thus dealt with, and intimated that England intended to maintain her claims as a principal in the negotiations.

The communications between the two Governments grew sharper in tone, and at length Lord Palmerston signified to the French Ambassador that, rather than be forced into the acceptance of unsatisfactory terms of peace, England would continue the war with no other ally than Turkey, and that she felt herself fully in a condition to enter on such a course.

Never had the alliance, throughout the war, been so strained as now. The Emperor endeavoured to restore concert by writing a letter to the Queen, recommending the Austrian proposals to favourabie consideration. The Queen's reply, pointing out, in the most friendly spirit, the difference of position in the two Governments, and consequently in their points of view-the Emperor responsible to nobody while in England the advisers of the Sovereign must recommend only such steps as can be defended in Parliament-contains this passage: "I cannot conceal from your Majesty my fears, founded upon information on which I can rely, that the language held at Paris by men in office, and others who have the honour to approach you, in regard to the financial difficulties of France, and the absolute necessity of concluding peace, has already produced a very mischievous effect at Vienna, at Berlin, and at St Petersburgh; and that it is very possible that Austria may by this time be disposed to draw back from her ultimatum, and to seek to obtain more favourable terms for Russia."

It appeared, from the Emperor's subsequent expressions, that the nature of the British objections to the Austrian proposals had been misrepresented to him by persons about him who desired peace on any terms-the source of that desire being perhaps explained by a passage in a letter of the Prince Consort, where, discussing the aspect of affairs in France, he speaks of the "stockbroking propensities of its public men."

But Louis Napoleon himself was thoroughly loyal to the alliance, and now, says Martin, took means to let it be known that, however this note might be sounded for purposes of the Bourse, he would be no party to a peace of which England did not approve. If the war had to be carried on, France would not be found backward. "Whatever I think right," he said to Lord Cowley, "I will do, and I shall not be afraid of making my conduct understood in France."

Nevertheless Russia must have felt great confidence in the agencies she had set to work in Paris, for she not only conveyed to the French Government her determination to accept no proposals that should come in the form of an ultimatum (that is to say, accompanied by a threat of joining the alliance) from Austria, but put forth a proposition of her own, of the most preposterous tenor, respecting the limitation of her power in the Black Sea, the point in which the British people were most interested.

She caused it to be proposed "that the Dardanelles should be closed, and that no ships of war should henceforth enter the Black Sea except those of Russia and Turkey, which should be maintained there in such numbers as the two neighbours should agree between themselves, without a voice on the part of the other Powers."

That the wolf should thus be left to arrange matters with the lamb would have been a very singular outcome to the costly efforts by which Russia had been reduced to her present condition, and her audacity in still maintaining such pretensions shows how strong was her reliance on the influences at work with the corrupt officials of the French Empire. But her game of brag was nearly at an end. Austria had at last laid before the Allied Powers a carefully prepared treaty, which, though short in some respects of what England had a right to claim, had been found to be what the British Ministry could accept, and this had now been sent as an Austrian ultimatum to St Petersburgh, the period for the Russian reply being limited to the 18th of January.

The Emperor of the French had made it understood that he was prepared either to make peace on these terms, or to continue the war with increased vigour, and he suggested that a council of war should meet in Paris to settle the course of action for the following spring. In consequence, British, French, and Italian officers, convened for the purpose, held their sittings in his capital, while the intention of Russia was still undeclared.

The alliance, thanks to the good faith of Louis Napoleon, having thus proved firm, the hollow pretensions of Russia vanished like a bubble. Her exhaustion left her no choice but to accept. Her losses, never accurately known, had been stupendous.

Up to the end of August those in the Crimea alone were estimated at 153,000 men, while hundreds of thousands, drawn from the recesses of the vast Empire, had died of the hardships of the march. Altogether it was confidently believed that her total loss during the war was not less than half a million of men.

On the 16th of January she accepted the Austrian terms as the basis of conference, and on the 25th February the Plenipotentiaries of the Powers met at Paris. Their first act was to settle the conditions of an armistice, which was to last till the 31st March. After that, the first point taken was the neutralisation of the Black Sea, and the article opening its waters to the commerce of all nations, and interdicting it to ships of war, was passed with unexpected facility. Another article which excluded Russia from the bank of the Danube was more strenuously contested by her representatives; but this also was finally agreed to. Also, an article was included which admitted Turkey to a participation in the public law and concert of Europe, and prohibited the other Powers, singly or collectively, from interference in questions between the Sultan and his subjects, or in the internal administration of his Empire.

The Treaty of Paris was signed on the 30th March. It was well known in the congress that, but for England, the conditions imposed on Russia would have been far easier. And though they were still too easy, yet England might congratulate herself on having obtained so much in circumstances so adverse.

For the Emperor was perhaps the only man in France who held firmly to the alliance. The French nation had no strong interest in the affairs of Turkey, and was now ready to believe, and to proclaim, that it had been made the tool of England. And Louis Napoleon himself had already obtained from the war.all that was necessary for his purpose, in the victory of the Tchernaya, and the brilliant finale of the Malakoff; while the unfortunate condition into which his army in the Crimea had fallen during the winter supplied an ample reason for desiring peace.

Nevertheless he continued to act in thorough unison with his ally, and again declared that he was ready to recommence the war if Russia should refuse her concurrence to the treaty. The feeling with which the two nations regarded the close of the war was thus expressed by the Prince Consort: "Peace is signed. Here it has been received with moderate satisfaction; in Paris with exultation."

That they should have cause for even moderate satisfaction was by the British people rightly attributed to the firm, patriotic spirit of Palmerston, who, amid all the clamours of the Peace Party and the Opposition, steered right on, winning a popularity which, when he appealed to the Country in the following year, returned him to power with a largely increased majority.

On the 2d April the Upland was for the last time shaken by the thunders of the artillery of the Allies. This time it proclaimed in salutes the tidings of peace. To those who have noted the difficulty with which we put even a small army in the field in these days, the dislocation of all our establishments which attends the operation, and the paucity of reserves, there is something almost marvellous in the strength of our Forces in the Crimea at the close of a war in which we had lost 22,000 men.

At Christmas 1855 we had there still greater forces of men than those already enumerated, with 120 guns; and in the middle of April 18,000 fresh troops were mustered at a field-day in Aldershot camp. The land transport, the commissariat, and the hospital system of the Army were all in excellent working order.

But they did not long remain so. Upon the return of the Army, the reduction of its establishments was effected in the usual reckless fashion. We soon reverted to our customary condition of military inefficiency, and during the next thirty years nearly all that remained to us as the result of the experience which we had gained in the war were the present excellent system of our military hospitals, the great example of these established at Netley, the framework of the Land Transport corps, which still survives in the Army Service corps, and Aldershot camp.

For a whole generation the world continued to have the benefit of the war in the enforced quiescence of Russia. Her wounds were too deep to permit her during that time to attempt measures of aggression, or to indulge a desire to disturb the peace of the world. And this result proved that the point of attack upon her had been rightly and fortunately selected.

The small proportion of coast line she exposes to the descent of an invader, the immense distances from the extremities to the heart of the Empire, the scarcity of roads, the rigours of the climate, all rendered the attack of the Western Powers upon Russia a nearly insoluble problem. But on the other hand, when she had once resolved to bring all her might and all her resources to bear on the defence of Sebastopol, these conditions turned against her, and rendered her course absolutely ruinous.

Her fleets were at once imprisoned in their ports, her troops were obliged to traverse enormous spaces to reach the point of conflict, the length and bad condition of the lines of communication rendered the supply of the Army difficult and extravagantly costly, the winter brought untold losses to the columns moving through mud and snow, and exposed to piercing winds. The requisitions for supplies and transport disorganised Southern Russia, and ruined its husbandry.

A speedy victory of the Allies, however complete, would have left the great resources of the enemy untouched, and the victors without an object. In such a case, it is difficult to say how or when the war would have ended, or how long the Western nations would have endured to see it drag on. But, in the course of the long siege, every failure on the part of the Allies, every gleam of hope which induced Russia to send fresh reinforcements to the Crimea, only served to prolong the terrible stress which was exhausting her.

Therefore the war was worth all it had cost. Its effect was not merely to defeat, but to disarm and disable the enemy. But to this advantage there was a limit. It had always been felt that Russia would not submit to the treaty longer than it could be enforced. A condition compelling a Power to refrain from certain acts on which it is bent will be repudiated at a fitting opportunity.

It was when the Germans were in Versailles that the Minister of the Czar issued a Note repudiating the Treaty of Paris. That was a moment when the other signatories were in no condition to enforce it, and Russia set about, among other things, the restoration of Sebastopol as a naval station, with its docks and arsenal. A Black Sea Fleet was once more camps of the British Divisions and their siege batteries, was known as Cathcart's Hill, because the general who fell at Inkerman was buried there, with many others. It had become the chief cemetery; it was enclosed with a lofty wall, and the graves, carefully tended by the comrades of those who lay there, were marked with headstones and crosses, and more considerable mementoes. Englishmen visiting the plateau in recent times noticed that the fences of these grave-yards had become ruinous, and that many of the bones were scattered.

When this became known at home, it was resolved that all the remains which had not yet mixed with the soil, and reappeared in the grass and the flowers, should be transported, along with their memorial stones, to Cathcart's Hill, the cemetery on which should be placed in repair, and provision made for so maintaining it.

All this was effected a few years ago. The Englishman who may still be attracted to the spot reads there names once well known in England; and looking on the neighbouring hills and hollows, where so protracted a strife was waged, and where so many thousands fell, he sees the points which mark the Russian lines of defence, with the famous Malakoff and Mamelon standing up in all their former defiance ; while beyond, against the blue of the Euxine, are the streets and domes and churches of the city, risen from its ashes. New batteries protect the shore, the docks once more resound with the clang of labour, the port is filled with the barks of commerce, and guarded by the vessels of war.

Yet a few years, and all those who still remember how passionately the thoughts and wishes of the people of England were once directed on this spot, will themselves have departed, and nothing will then survive to remind the world of this long and desperate conflict of giants except a page in history.