‘The strategic importance of the Euphrates valley railway’ [‎27] (38/204)

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her soldiers and sailors who defended the strongly fortified
position of Sevastopol,—for fortress, in the proper sense of
the word, it was not. Nothing could exceed the devoted-
ness of her officers; their energy, skill, and personal courage
were always the admiration of all of us who witnessed it;
as day by day and night by night the weary hours of
the siege rolled on, as though they would never come to
an end.
Nearly twice ten years have passed away since those
days; but the name of that gallant engineer, the life and soul
of the defence of Sevastopol, must still be in the memory of
us all. I mean Todleben. I am proud to say I have made
his acquaintance since the war, and I found him as courteous
and charming a gentleman, as I know him to be a gallant
and first-rate soldier. The bravery, devotedness, and
endurance of the private soldiers was quite as conspicuous
as the qualities of their officers; and when men undertake
to cry down the Russian army, I feel sure they have never
had the honour of fighting them. All I can say is, God
grant in my day England may not again have to struggle in
mortal fight with so redoubtable a foe. I respect them as
enemies, and as friends I know none I like better, few as
well. I cannot afford to pass by without attention the acts
of Russia towards Constantinople; I cannot so insult her as
to take no notice of what she is about. Her power is so
great; her ambition, proved by the acts of two centuries, so
vast, her energy, perseverance, and skill so admirable, her
main object and desire, viz., obtaining European Turkey, so
natural, that I should be wilfully blind if I did not see what
all is tending to, and if I did not watch every movement of
the Muscovite with grave attention.
The following extract from Colonel Mitchell's Power and
Position of Russia, published in 1838, will show some of the
consequences which may be apprehended:—
" When the Muscovites shall be in actual possession of
Constantinople, they will be able, by means of the rivers that
descend from the heart of their dominions into the Black Sea,
to collect all their forces, in perfect security, along the shores
of the Dardanelles, in order to hurl them, whenever it may